Teenage Detective
by ridXwan
Summary: COMPLETE Hogwarts is under the treat of a mysterious killer. It's up to a rehabilitate Harry Potter to solve his first case with the help of new friends. NO HBP SPOILERS but got some similarity to the 6th book.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:** I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. They are own by J.K Rowling, Bloomsbury, Scholastics and Warner Bros. This story also has nothing to do with either the living or the dead. I also do not own 'Faint' by Linkin Park.  
  
**Teenage Detective**

**Prologue**  
  
It was over but I still felt some sorrow in me. I needed a cure and I needed it fast. Voldemort was gone, gone forever. The Wizarding World was at peace, yet I still felt some despair. I needed love and I needed it fast. Life was at ease yet again but I felt miserable somehow. I needed someone and I needed you two.  
  
But both of you weren't there for me...  
  
It was suppose to be a celebration but what is a celebration if you were always busy. I'm here for you, for your love. Like other times, we were 'just the two of us' but now, we hardly saw each other. When I need you,  
  
You weren't there...  
  
_I am,  
  
Little bit of loneliness,  
  
A little bit of disregard,  
  
A helpful of complains,  
  
But I can't help the fact,  
  
That everyone see the scar,  
_  
Everything was over. We can live and be happy together. But both of you made me gloomy. I didn't like being sad. I knew that I love both of you and yet I love one of you more. My body went through hell just to prove it. In the end both of you found love in each other and it made me sad.  
  
I was curious to 'where were you'. I was unhappy all the time. I may get friends but I still wanted you. You were my life and I was yours. We made that promise few years ago. I knew you since we were little. In the end, I was lost without you.  
  
_I am,  
  
What I want you to want,  
  
What I want you to feel,  
  
But it's like,  
  
No matter what I do,  
  
I can't convince you,  
  
To believe this is real,  
_  
I did what you both wanted, I was happy or at least pretend to be happy. I pretended to be happy for the both of you even both of you were oblivious to it. I knew I cannot take away what you had. It made me sad but at least I have both of you or so I thought.  
  
I asked you what you wanted. You said you were very happy with me. You said you wanted me to give yourself time to do other things. I did what you requested and I hoped we were still together but I still have that nagging uneasy feeling. I hope I was wrong.  
  
_So I let go,  
  
Watching you,  
  
Turn your back like you always do,  
  
Face away and pretend I'm not,  
  
But I'll be here,  
  
Cause you're all I got,  
_  
After that, things went tumbling down. It wasn't supposed to be this way. I love you both. Why have you forgotten me? I'm here, just by your sight. Why were you both ignoring me? I am your friend. You both were caught up in the famous circle and I'm out of it. But I'm still here for you two. I am still your friend if you needed me. I'm alone... for now.  
  
Why are you ignoring me? I was your shoulder to cry on. I was mad at you but when you came to me and I pretended to be happy. You were off busy for something to do that I didn't know. I needed to know what you were doing.  
  
_I am,  
  
A little bit insecure,  
  
A little unconfident,  
  
Cause you don't understand,  
  
I do what I can,  
  
But sometimes I don't make sense,  
_  
I am here all alone while both of you enjoying yourself forgetting me. I never want to be alone after all we've been through but the inevitable happen, I was destined to be alone again. I cried for both of you to come to me, you both didn't come. I cried and cried but no one came. I even yelled for both of you and still you both didn't come. I cried and cried until I was tired of crying. I was in deep sorrow. I was in a place where I never wanted to go again. I was in the hell of loneliness.  
  
I couldn't believe my eyes. You have changed your eyes to someone else. Why? Am I not good enough for you? We've been together for several years and you just looked at someone else. You looked at him; you looked at the most popular guy in the world. Am I not a special guy like him? Why? Why not me?  
  
_I am,  
  
What you never wanted to say,  
  
But I've never had doubt,  
  
It's like no matter what I do,  
  
I can't convince you,  
  
For once just to hear me out,  
_  
Now I was saved yet again. Not by both of you but someone else. Someone I didn't expect. Someone who neither was the first person in my mind nor the last person I wanted to see. Someone who was trying hard while neither the both of you even lifted a finger. I answered that person and I was saved.  
  
You and he were now one. I heard a few whispers around that you had an eye on him. He needed to back off and realised you were mine. Please forget him and be with me. I begged of you. Please don't cry because what I said. I wanted nothing but you. Please, please, please...  
  
_So I let go,  
  
Watching you,  
  
Turn your back like you always do,  
  
Face away and pretend I'm not,  
  
But I'll be here,  
  
Cause you're all I got,  
_  
In just three days, I felt renewed but not at full potential. I was saved by someone who has a common thing with me. I became happy again. That person gave me things to do from now on. That person wanted me realised that there was still life ahead of me. I'm listening to that person. Books, clothes and other things were given to me and I did something I never thought to be doing when I was little. Sometimes I thought I have crossed over the line but right now I am crossing a line that was visible to me since the beginning. I am changing.  
  
You spent your time with him more than with me. I was mad as hell. I couldn't stop ranting around my friends. They abandoned me as well. No matter, I wanted you only and only you. He can't play Quidditch anymore after what happen. I'm going to kill him. No, no, that would be not good. I needed to do something. Your eyes looked at me like you didn't recognise me anymore. You were scared to go near me. You were the fool who did this.  
  
_I can't feel,  
  
The way did before,  
  
Don't turn your back on me,  
  
I won't be ignored,  
_  
I changed dramatically. I never knew I had this craving in my genes. My parents have the itch for it. After reading tonnes of books in just one month, my life was changed. I knew from now on that I didn't want to be what I want. For the first time, I can become what I wanted. I didn't need the two so-called-friends that I always called for. From now on, I will be independent. I will make new friends. I already have one. One that can I relied on. One who didn't ignore me.  
  
I was crazy and you did nothing about it. How was I supposed to love without you by my side? I must do something about you and your sodding new friend. I thought and thought of some plans and it all came to one conclusion. If I can't have you anymore, I will not let anyone have you.  
  
_Time won't heal,  
  
This damage anymore,  
  
Don't turn your back on me,  
  
I won't be ignored.  
_  
I never felt so good. I changed and no one can change me back to the person I was once before. My former friends still didn't acknowledge my presence, my appearance and the changes that I have been through. So do I care about them? HELL NO. I am moving on but I'm still here for you guys but secretly. For now, your ignorance was the one thing that made me moved on, so.... GOODBYE!!  
  
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
A/N: This is just the prologue, if you can't guess what is wrong with this story, there are two people speaking here. I don't want to say who but one thing I can tell you that one is a detective and the other one is a murderer. Both of them were bound by one fate. By the way, this is a mystery story with a dash of angst and romance.


	2. Lost, Found and Lost Again

**Title: **Teenage Detective – Chapter One – Lost, Found, and Lost Again.****

**Author: **ridXwan

**Rating: **PG

**Summary: **Ron is dead and a funeral is being set up for him, everyone is there except someone and Hermione realises who is missing.

**Warning: This will make you hate someone to the brink of ending a friendship.**

**A/N:** I needed someone to Beta this story so is there any volunteer?

**Teenage Detective**

**Chapter 1**

**Lost, Found and Lost Again**

* * *

****

_Though lost in sea of remote,_

_The fisherman never gave up,_

_Paddling and dragging his boat,_

_Till his last breath left a map._

* * *

Ottery St. Catchpole, a place where the sun and wind played cheerily together. The sun shined on the people to lighten up their day and the wind blew to indicate it was a grand day, cooling the area of peaceful resignation. But when tragedy slammed its way into one of the people of Ottery St. Catchpole, the town wore a grim dark weather around it.

Today the Wizarding people of the town have lost one of its well-known residents. A young lad with a bright future in Quidditch has been murdered just a day ago. His family, whose luck had been turned upside down, mourned his death. The mother still couldn't believe it, crying and wailing terribly after the news was broken to them. The father comforted his wife and pretended to be strong to the others, but inside he was falling. The siblings grouped together to get the family on their feet again.

Other than the mother, another person broke down by the news of her lover's sudden death. A death that was not supposed to have happened after the defeat of Voldemort.

The funeral was in progress, and the oak coffin, which contained Ronald Bilius Weasley, was placed at the altar watched by less than two hundred dolefully looking people. The procession was compromised of people from the Ministry, townspeople, teachers, and close friends of the family. Hermione Granger looked at the coffin, crying softly whilst listening to Dumbledore's speech. She sat in the front row of the church along with her parents and the Weasleys. She seldom wiped the tears away with her handkerchief.

Those who were attending the funeral who Hermione recognised were Dumbledore, all the professors in Hogwarts minus Snape, Lupin, Mad-eye Moody, Tonks, Shacklebolt, Bill's wife Fleur and her sister Gabriel, Ron's friends, Neville, Luna, Dean, Seamus, Parvati, Lavender, Ginny's boyfriend Draco, Colin, Lee, Oliver, Angelina, Katie, Alicia and other students who knew Ron. Though there were many people, Hermione could feel something missing during this grim time. It was like a big piece of cake was stolen. She shrugged it off anyway, feeling she would figure it out later.

After the speech, people walked up to the coffin to say their farewell. One by one, people wished and talk to Ron silently. His family was the last to see him depart. All of them broke down to see Ron's pale condition, which clashed with his still fiery red hair. Hermione too broke down seeing Ron for the last time. Her parents quickly comforted her. And yet, something still nagged her in this painful moment.

* * *

_Don't you ever forget me,_

_The one who connected you both,_

_To hell and back we come,_

_We argue back and forth._

* * *

The coffin was sent to the Ottery St. Catchpole's graveyard on a carriage carried by thestrals and the people were taken there by horseless carriages. Muggles, particularly Hermione's parents, were a bit scared of the ride, but remained strong and brave in respect of Ron.

Hermione sat in one of the carriages with her parents and her friends, Draco and Ginny. During the ride, that something has turned into someone. Hermione knew someone was missing; she tried to figure it out but couldn't put a finger on it. Draco saw her wandering expression, which was supposed to be grim. He exchanged knowing looks with Ginny and asked the bushy haired Head Girl.

"Hermione is something bothering you?" he asked politely, shook Hermione's shoulder lightly to catch her attention. Her parents immediately looked away form the horseless carriage and gazed at their daughter.

"I felt like – something's missing or – someone's missing," she told them, not bothering to look at any of them. Draco and Ginny knew whom she meant but kept quiet.

"Hermione dear – I'm sure whatever or whoever is missing – Ron is still with you," her mother said caringly, giving a warm smile to her daughter. Hermione nodded and the carriage continued to be quiet till it reached the graveyard.

But she still felt it.

The graveyard was never a pretty sight to see. The grass grew wild and untrimmed and trees along time dead spotted the landscape. Crows, and quite few, squawked loudly. Tombstones everywhere marked other graves. The coffin was lowered magically by a ministry official. People mourned and cried as they watched the process, masses of black dresses, suits and robes gathering around the grave of Ron Weasley. Girls cried into their significant other or their handkerchief. Mrs. Weasley buried her face in her hands while Hermione looked on strongly as the grave was filled with dirt, closed forever.

She still cried while in the comforting arms of her parents. Her mother sniffed lightly. Her parents help had kept her strong through the ordeal.

Finally Ron was buried. The tombstone read:

_Ronald Bilius Weasley_

_1st March 1980__– 9th November 1997___

_Beloved son, friend and hero,_

_Nothing completed him than the word 'Checkmate'._

* * *

_"Where are you, Ron?"_

_"Ron!"_

* * *

When all procedure was finished, the guests went their separate way, back to their everyday life and also remembering Ron Weasley. Hermione bid farewell to her parents as they were sent back home by Floo. The students were following the teachers back to Hogwarts by using a Portkey, although some of them stayed behind to help the Weasleys. Hagrid, Lupin and McGonagall stayed behind to look after the children.

Mrs. Weasley kept crying in the kitchen of the newly built Burrow being comforted by her husband, her three eldest children, Hagrid, Lupin and McGonagall. Fred and George and some other guests were talking in the living room. Hermione was in Ron's room with Ginny, Draco, Neville, Seamus, Dean, Parvati and Lavender. All of them were sad being in the room. They only talked about Ron and his success so far. There were some awkward silences in between the topics.

Hermione didn't join in or listen to any of them. She was still certain someone was missing, but could not figure who she was thinking about till she gazed around the room.

The room was never going to be changed, full of orange of the Chudley Cannon merchandise and things. Books and catalogues of Quidditch stuff lying around the floor and desk. Hermione was bored of reading the stuff, but she read all of them only once back when the Quidditch World Cup was held. This was the room where she snuggled with Ron. This was the room where they played Wizards' Chess and Ron always won each time. This room too was where Ron shared with a young, unruly haired, skinny boy wearing big clothes, baggy pants and round glasses.

* * *

_"Oh! It's you,"_

_"Can't you disturb someone else?"_

_"Huh,"_

* * *

"Harry!" she shouted, standing up form Ron's bed. Everyone in the room jumped at her voice. Thousand of thoughts ran through her brain. Where was Harry Potter? Ron's best friend and hers too. Why wasn't he at the funeral? How could she have been forgotten about him? All those questions were in her near-fragile brain.

"Hermione," Parvati's voice brought her back form her reverie, "Are you alright?"

She looked panicky at her friends, who in return looked anxious at her. "Where's Harry?" she asked, with a monotone voice.

That question alone made everyone not look her in the eye. They looked at everywhere and anything but Hermione. "Where is he? I didn't see him at the funeral. I need to see him," she said in desperation. Hearing her last five words made Ginny snapped suddenly.

"Now you want to see him!" Ginny snapped. Hermione was taken aback by the young Weasley, glaring at her.

"Ginny!" everyone whispered indignantly at Ginny. There was tension filling the room with Ginny's anger towards Hermione. The Head Girl didn't have time to deal with Ginny and walked off the room. She missed Ginny's last words, "That's because he wasn't."

She thought that Harry ought to be somewhere in the new Burrow so she went to find him. She went through all of the floors and every room but he wasn't in any of them. She thought that Harry must be downstairs in the living room, talking to the twins. She ran all the way downstairs form the fourth floor, but she found no Harry.

"Hey Hermione, is everything alright?" Fred asked form the couch where he was talking to Angelina and Alicia. She ignored him and went outside. Fred looked puzzled at her retreating form as he and the others watched her run outside.

She ran to the garden, the pond, the shack, the swing and even the secret place but Harry wasn't in any of them. Then a thought hit her, Harry must've been back in Hogwarts. She went back in to the house through the backdoor, which connected to the kitchen. She saw Mrs. Weasley already calmed down but she was stressful. She saw Hagrid, Mr. Weasley, Lupin, McGonagall, Bill, Charlie and Percy by the dining table. McGonagall was the first to notice her.

"Can I help you Ms. Granger?" she asked, her eyes were tired from helping the students and guests.

"Professor McGonagall, I need to go back to school this instance," she said hurriedly. The Transfiguration teacher looked admiringly at the young girl at how she was handling Ron's death better. "You want to go back to Hogwarts?" McGonagall asked, feeling odd towards Hermione.

"Yes – alone," she said quickly. She wanted so much to talk to Harry. She didn't notice that Lupin narrowed his eyes at her and Hagrid released a sigh of disappointment.

* * *

_He let out a huge sigh, watching them, not to be notice by him. It all seemed to be a bad dream or a nightmare._

_One thing was for sure, he lost a few and gained a new._

* * *

"Follow me dear," the old witch said, not in her stern tone. McGonagall stood up and went outside with Hermione on her tail. The young girl followed her all the way to a barrel that was the Portkey. She touched it immediately without waiting a word from McGonagall. She landed in Dumbledore's office with a hard drop. The Headmaster watched her drop, landing on her rear.

"Ah! Hermione, pleasure to see you back again," he said delightedly, as Hermione stood up, rubbing her sore bum.

"You too, sir – but I haven't got all day, good evening, sir," she said and ran out of the office. Dumbledore looked at Hermione and then went back to his work. He smiled, thinking this Christmas should be a pleasant one.

Hermione ran all the way to the Gryffindor Tower, ignoring Filch's anger and greetings from the students. She made it to the portrait hole and stopped for a moment to catch some air. The fat lady saw her and opened the portrait hole without asking the password. Hermione was grateful for that one and ran in to the common room. A few Gryffindors were there and tried to greet her but she ignored them and headed upstairs to the boys' dormitory.

She halted in front of the boys' room or Harry's, gathering her breath and hoping that Harry would be inside. As she stood outside, she could hear somebody inside playing a guitar. She knocked on the door twice before creeping into the room slowly.

It was dark and dim lit by the outside light, a very good combination with the melodic sound of the guitar picking. Hermione walked slowly as to not to knocked anything on the ground. She then saw a figure on one of the boys' four poster bed. She knew it was Harry since the other three boys were at the Burrow but she couldn't make out the feature yet.

* * *

_"Hermione!__ - How can you forget?"_

_"Forget what?"_

_"You're so blind sometimes, why can't you see the someone lying beside you?"_

_"What are you talking about?"_

* * *

"Harry," she called in a low tone but he would not stop playing. "Harry!" she said loudly. No response as the melody was mystifying Harry into picking his guitar with passion. The song has a lot of anger, loss and redemption in the smooth and fast sound.

Hermione drew out her wand and lit the lamp beside Harry's bed, finally seeing a much-changed Harry. He stopped playing when he realised someone has interrupted him. He opened his eyes to meet the one he knew so much and yet hate it.

Hermione was shocked to see Harry. For a fleeting moment, she thought Harry was someone else but the brilliant green eyes made it clear that it was definitely Harry. His once untidy hair was now fairly managed and he wasn't wearing any glasses, making his eyes glimmering within the light of the lamp. He looked a bit cross at Hermione for interrupting his peace.

"H-Hullo Harry," she stuttered, scared of Harry's piercing gaze. Harry remained silent with his guitar on his lap. Hermione wanted so badly to run out of the room but she too wanted to talk to Harry. "I didn't see you at the funeral," she said, with a weak grin. Harry still remained silent. "Aren't you going to say anything?" she asked, trying to sound cross but couldn't.

He finally did something. Harry bent down and put the guitar under the bed. He then sat back up and let out a huge sigh. He gazed back at Hermione, this time emotionless. "One year, two months, eight days, seventeen hours, twenty three minute and forty four seconds," he said nonchalantly, his mood for the moment. Hermione was quite puzzled by his words. "That long it took you to notice that I'm here all this time," he said.

Hermione gasped quietly, hands clapped over her mouth, tears running down her cheeks. She had forgotten her best friend for that long.

* * *

_"Friends forever,"_

_"Promise…"_

_"Promise with all my heart, Harry,"_

* * *

"I'm sorry," her voiced quavering, "I didn't mean to-" she started but got cut off.

"Now you come running to me when Ron's dead," he said, still emotionless but his eyes were closed.

"Yes – I mean NO!" she said abruptly, her voice was rising. "I just want to know why you aren't at Ron's funeral, your best-" she got cut off again.

"Ron is not my best friend," he snarled, anger bursting out of him. "He and you ignored me. I won't go to someone's bloody funeral who didn't even cared bout me," he said pointedly, Hermione's eyes were wide opened of fear.

"Both of you were so caught up being the 'Famous Gryffindor Golden Couple,'" he said curtly, "ignoring and forgetting me – your friend," he continued sarcastically. Hermione was in disbelief now and sobbing. She didn't even bother to cover up. Harry then went on to explain in a lazy tone. It seemed that he was fed up with her.

"I was alone and no one was there for me. I called for the both of you, but neither respond back. I found solace in Hagrid and some other people that I didn't know if you would care about me. I waited and waited for the both of you to come to me but neither of you spared a glance," he said with a hint of rage. He didn't want to torture her but to expressed his disappointment with their once friendship. There were no evident smirks or smug face, a sign that he was not savouring the moment.

Hermione couldn't bear hearing this, she already had a bad day and it sounded like she was going to lose another friend. "Guess what?" Harry said. She didn't want to hear it.

"I stop being your friend, Hermione. I don't care about you or Ron or whatever happened to the both of you. Go back to your popular friends that you always hang out with," said Harry, this time scowling. Hermione gawked at him with her red puffy eyes, shook her head in disbelief.

"No, no – please don't – I don't want to lose you – I love you," she said out of extreme anxiety. She saw Harry was standing up from the bed. He needed his glasses she thought. "Let me get your glasses," she said, trying everything she could to be friends again. She went to his bedside table and searched. To her disappointment, there were no round-framed glasses on the table. "W-where's your glasses?" she spluttered, looking back at Harry who turned his back on her.

"I've changed Hermione," he said, and spun back to face her, narrowing his eyes at her, "a lot if you didn't notice this past year. I don't need my glasses anymore. I got an operation." Hermione was utterly terrified by his intense gaze. She bit her lower lip and grabbed the hem of her skirt, trying to fend off whatever Harry was doing to her. He turned around and headed for the door. Realising that Harry was about to leave, Hermione swiftly ran to him and hugged him from behind.

"Please! I need you! Don't go!" she pleaded while crying miserably. Her eyes were red from the tears. Harry pushed her back with magic and she landed softly on his bed.

"I've changed, Hermione – I'm not the same Harry you knew. I stopped being your friend after Voldemort's defeat, when you and Ron ignored me," he said for the last time and walked to the door. He left Hermione, who fainted on his bed, weak from having a very bad day. Harry really meant every word that he told her. She heard the door shut closed.

Down in the common room, Harry bumped into Neville, Dean, Seamus, Parvati, Lavender and Ginny. The six Gryffindors looked unsure at Harry and he looked nonchalant at them.

"Hermione's upstairs in our room, she fainted," he said and walked out of the common room, leaving a few people in shock. All six of them ran to the boys' room and found Hermione lying on Harry's bed, legs dangling from the side of the bed. Neville carried her to the Hospital Wing with Ginny following him.


	3. Observe the Intelligence

**Title:** Teenage Detective – Chapter Two – Observing the Intelligence

**Author:** ridXwan

**Rating:** PG

**Summary:** It's been three days since the funeral and Hermione wondered about the changes in Harry.

**Warning: OOC rules.**

**A/N:** I know you lots have a problem with OOC but c'mon lots of fics have an OOC characters. I mean what kind of Harry is the romantic kind of guy and does Harry is dense, when it comes to love life only and for other matters, I don't think so.

**Teenage Detective**

**Chapter 2**

**Observing the Intelligence**

Three days since Ron's funeral and things weren't the same before in the Gryffindor house. Hermione was depressed, more even than in her third year. Since coming out of the Hospital Wing two days ago, she kept moping and sulking in her room. Hardly ever going out of the common room, even to eat, her friends brought her food. She only went out for lessons or being called by one of the professors.

Nothing could help her save one person, her best friend who she had forgotten ever since she and Ron got together. What a big mistake she made!

After three days of unexpected raining, the day was finally breezy and almost all the young occupants of Hogwarts were cheerily doing their own work. Gryffindors weren't in the best of moods, but they still managed to make the day for themselves. Though no one was aloud to use the Quidditch Pitch for the time being, many would sneak in with their brooms to secretly fly around the pitch. While many spent the day outdoors, Hermione spent her time in the common room, moping and sulking and staring gloomily at her former best friend whilst pretending to read.

How he has change she thought. Harry was sitting in a chair that he moved near the window, watching the grand view. Hermione, though sad, admired his new appearance. His hair, no longer unruly but fairly managed, looked like he just came back from a hair stylist. No round framed glasses that made him distinguish as the Harry Potter that everyone knew. He grown a little bigger than the last time she saw him. His boyish face was long gone, replaced now by a pleasant, serious, cool look. But she couldn't get rid of the memory of Harry's serious and piercing gaze, one that would make someone want to submit guiltily to him.

Ginny, Parvati and Lavender sighed one too many times when seeing Hermione staring at Harry. Hermione wasn't ready to talk about what happened three days ago to anyone, even though she had lots of friends since the defeat of Voldemort and she became popular. Though she didn't like it at first, she grew into it with great consequences. But none of them came even close to her parents and Harry.

"How much did he change?" she asked abruptly. The girls stopped their work and gazed confusingly at her, "Who?" they asked together. "Harry," she said simply.

Ginny sighed in mild exasperation; she was torn between staying mad at Hermione or looked apologetically at her. "You should find out yourself. Hermione," the youngest Weasley said. Hermione forced herself to change her attention from Harry to Ginny and glared at her friend.

"What do you mean by that, Ms. Future-Draco-Malfoy?" she mocked, something she picked up from Ron. Ginny never like her brother's remarks and Hermione had adopted that behaviour. It was annoying, but patient as she was she didn't retort. "I meant just asked him, alright!" she said wryly.

Hermione felt slightly taken aback by Ginny's answer. She frowned at the thought of talking to someone who hated her. "I can't."

"Why not?" said Parvati, raising her eyebrows, "He's there and available."

"And he's going to bite my head off. His temper is beyond boiling point!" she said indignantly. Ginny shook her head in disappointment.

"That's the old Harry, this is the new Harry and a very change one," said Ginny amusingly. Hermione looked defeated after hearing Ginny. "You missed a lot about him this past year. No one noticed at first, but lately he's the Harry Potter that we've been missing all this time."

Hermione felt dreadfully regret forgetting Harry just like that. Her friend has changed from the Boy Who Lived to the total stranger that was Harry Potter. The worst part was she didn't know it till now.

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted when a fourth year Gryffindor came to her, whining terribly. "Hermione! Hermione!" called the girl with blonde hair. Since becoming Head Girl, people have been coming to her endlessly for help. She got a warning from McGonagall yesterday for not helping a single student after Ron's death.

"What is it Amy?" she said languidly. The girl didn't notice her exasperation.

"I need you help!" cried Amy; she was a great example of a spoilt rich girl.

"What kind of help?" said she, trying to be patient.

"I-I-I," the girl stuttered.

"Spit it out!" Hermione snarled loudly, the whole common room jumped at her voice. Amy squirmed, afraid of the Head Girl's voice. Hermione noticed this and quickly apologised to everyone.

"Look – I'm sorry, Amy. Tell me what's the problem?" said Hermione apologetically, crossing her arm and tapping one feet.

"I-I've lost my Twinkle bell," she announced in a quivering tone and all of a sudden the whole common room looked anxiously at her save one person sitting by the window.

Ginny stood up from her chair roughly, causing the chair to move a bit, and gaze crossly at Amy. "You lost your broom?!"

Amy, Gryffindor's seeker, squirmed immensely, avoiding Ginny's intense gaze. "How?!" yelled Ginny. Hermione held up a hand, pleading with the Gryffindor captain to calm down. "I take over my late brother's post for just three days and you idiotically lost your broom," she shouted some more. Hermione flinched at the mention of Ron and Ginny noticed it, "Oh! Sorry Hermione, I'm-"

"It's quite alright, Ginny," said Hermione and turned to Amy. "How did you lost it?"

Amy took great deal of breath in and explained, "I was polishing and cleaning my broom in the locker room yesterday evening when some of my friends called me to go to Transfiguration. Since I couldn't bring the broom to class, I left it in my locker. When I return, the broom was gone – I searched everywhere since yesterday in the castle. I snuck in to every locker room, even the Slytherin's and I still couldn't find it."

"Have you told Professor McGonagall?" Hermione inquired.

"Are you mental? She'll kill me if I lost my very expensive broom and she-" Amy immediately shut her mouth after seeing the dangerous glare shot at her. "Sorry."

"She's right, Hermione. McGonagall will chuck her out off the team," Ginny interjected. Hermione wanted to kill Amy at that point but Ginny was right, McGonagall never liked irresponsible students.

The portrait hole opened and in walked a boy with spiky brown hair and stubble chin. This boy was Amy close friend and of the same year. "Greg!" Amy squealed with delight.

The boy approached her in a sad manner, looking tired and worn as well. "I'm sorry, Amy – I couldn't find your broom anywhere," he said, "I searched the greenhouse after breakfast. I searched near the nocturnal plants in greenhouse number three and I almost got eaten by the Sporadic Cactus."

Amy looked pitifully, tearful and remorse, at her friend and enveloped him in a hug. "Oh! Greg you don't have to sacrifice a lot for me, Greg," she said, Greg smiled widely, looking down on the head of the petite girl. Some of the Gryffindors even Ginny and Hermione smiled at the two fourth years. Seeing the two, Hermione regretted never doing this with Harry. The two broke apart and looked amused at each other.

"Let's go look under the stands of the stadium – I haven't check there yet," Amy suggested.

Greg looked suddenly fearful. "I've already check that place this morning. There's nothing," he said briskly and Amy's face fell. Everyone felt sorry for the girl, who just lost a very costly broom, save one person.

"He's lying," declared a voice that made everyone turned to him. Hermione, Ginny, Parvati and Lavender stared surprised at him. Amy was puzzled while Greg looked frightened at the boy who stood up. "Greg was the one who took your broom, Ms. Twitter."

The common room filled with gasped, hearing the accusation made by Harry. Greg was tense suddenly and Hermione noticed it. "I don't know what you're talking about, Harry," Greg said nervously.

"Of course you don't know," said Harry. His eyes, intense, cold and incisive, laid upon Greg that Hermione knew it was similar to the one three day ago, "You wouldn't admit that you stole her broom."

Amy was in a state of disbelief. She looked at the nervous Greg. "Is it true?" Greg froze at her question, "No, he's lying – What proof do you have?"

Harry smirked playfully, the opposite of Draco. "For one the dry stain of mud on your shoes, pants and the hem of your robe," he pointed out. Everyone put upon their eyes on Greg's attire. There was a clear mud stain on them. Greg hid his nervous expression and looked crossly at Harry.

"I got it from the greenhouse," he said glaringly.

"The greenhouse has dirt, not mud, Mr. Derson," Harry quipped. Hermione was surprised that Harry knew about this piece of information. Everyone else was clueless, but shocked none the less.

Greg continued to glare at his senior while Harry was cool and delighted, despite his intense look. "Further more, you said you were in greenhouse three, searching for the broom in the nocturnal plants and almost got eaten by a Sporadic Cactus," he said.

"Yes!" the accused, said curtly, "I was there after breakfast."

"That's where you're lying, Mr. Derson – Greenhouse three is for sunlight-exposed-plants, no plants that is prone to sunlight should be there especially nocturnal plants," Harry said gleefully, Greg tensed under this evidence. "Further more, Sporadic Cactus is in Greenhouse Five not three." Harry grinned triumphantly as though he won a prize and Greg looked tense and scared under the accusing eyes of the common room.

After hearing Harry's deduction, Hermione was enraged at Greg for lying. "Explain yourself now, Greg!"

Greg jumped, hearing the Head Girl's high pitched voice. He was frightened at the girls who just pitied him a few minutes ago. Amy was immensely angry and tears were forming in her eyes. Ginny couldn't believe such a boy could lie boldly. Greg wanted more to escape but succumbed to everyone's cross faces. "Alright! – I did it, I stole her broom," he admitted, raising his arms to surrender.

Amy gasped loudly, so did the some other girls in the common room. It was Greg's turn to look crossly now. "Happy now!"

"Why did you do it?" Ginny asked, stepping in front of Greg. Both of them looked angry at each other.

"You want to know why? Because Amy is a selfish little girl who wouldn't want to spoil her broom." he pointed at the bewildered Amy, "She wouldn't let anyone share a ride on her precious broom."

Amy gritted her teeth in rage and wanted nothing but to jumped on Greg and throttled him to death. She already formed a fist and moved towards Greg but Hermione halted her.

"You bastard! I am not selfish, you ingrate!" Amy yelled.

"Oh yeah, Ms. Brat! You should've given me a ride and I'm your friend, self-centred bitch," Greg spat back.

"Why you!" Amy was ready to lunge him but someone pulled her back into a chair forcefully.

"Hermione! What are you-"

"It was me, Ms. Twitter, calm down," Harry said right in her face. Amy squirmed immensely under his piercing gaze. "Calm down," he repeated.

Amy obliged and calmed herself down but kept her gaze at Greg. "Mr. Derson, is not only the one to blame here," said Harry and everyone stared at him, utterly puzzled. "As I recall two weeks ago, Ms. Twitter here was a very flashy person – parading, swaggering all around Hogwarts, displaying arrogantly her new broom," said Harry with a pleasant smile. Amy was stunned silent and immediately regretted her actions just now. She looked at Greg who was still angry. "Sorry," she muttered.

Her apology took Greg by surprise. "What did you say?" he asked in disbelief.

"Sorry for not giving you a ride," she said, smiling weakly and sadly.

Greg looked apologetically at her. "It's alright, we're friends, right?" he said and she nodded.

Ginny was amazed at Harry and delighted at the sight of the two friends. "C'mon you two, let's go get your broom so we can Ravenclaw's butt," she suggested, as the captain.

"I believe is under the Quidditch stands," said Harry, crossing his arms.

Greg mouth dropped in amazement of Harry's knowing. "How did you know?"

"I have my ways," he said as a matter-of-factly. Ginny and the two fourth years went off to the pitch and everyone went back to their occupation. As for Hermione, she went back to her staring at Harry who was walking back to his seat to pick up something. It was a black book with some of its pages almost checked out of it. He walked out of the common room, not bothering to look at Hermione, who was hoping he would.

She saw how changed Harry had become. From the boy who was lost in both the Muggle and Wizarding World to the astute, intelligent and observant man she just saw. She should be happy with his changes, but in her mind she wasn't. It was like Harry was way smarter than she was and it hurt her pride and status.

Then she remembered what Ginny said to her. She has to ask him but she was scared to relive the trauma three days ago. She resorted to the old sneak and follow, the way she, Harry and Ron use to do it. She ran to her room and pick up Ron's invisibility cloak. The Weasleys were rich and Ron bought everything that Harry got except the Marauder's Map, which Ron pleaded Hermione to make one but she failed due to its content of restricted spells. And she thought it was a bit too much for Ron to have everything Harry had, so she didn't do it. She pondered why Ron got all of those things and she couldn't remember Harry.

She put on the cloak and walked out to follow Harry with one vow, to bring back the old Harry she knew.

A/N: Thanks to Rackhmar for Betaing this story. Next chapter where the real mystery begin.


	4. Did not Anticipate

**Teenage Detective**

**Chapter 3:**

**Did Not Anticipate**

Hermione never stopped following Harry where ever he went, even the bathroom. She only ate a couple of pieces of toast that morning and it provided enough energy to follow him. He observed as she walked closely to him, learning more about him. Girls admired and giggled whenever Harry passed a group of them, Hermione felt a little jealous at the girls. But she was glad that Harry never halted to pay any attention to them.

Harry walked down the marble staircase and turned right and made his way to the stairs that led to the eerie dungeon. 'Why would Harry want to be there?' Hermione thought. Then it struck her; Harry walked along the dark corridors moving towards the office at the end. Hermione couldn't believe her eyes. Harry entered the unmistakable office of Professor Snape. The greasy haired professor who she and Harry supposedly had something in common: hate. She hurriedly trudged down the corridor, dragging along the invisible cloak, but she was too late as Harry closed the door. She cursed in frustration, something she never done. Fortunately, she could hear some voices in the room. She put her ear against the wooden door.

"Good afternoon Severus," Harry greeted in a not so hate voice. This came as a shock to Hermione.

"Good to see you too, Harry. Please take a seat," Snape's voice was heard and he sounded nice.

"No thanks," said Harry. Sound of footsteps could be heard. "Ah! Remus, how are you?"

"I'm fine and healthy, Harry," the new Defence Professor replied happily.

Either her ears were deceiving her or the three men inside were polite and casual with each other. Shrugging it off, she continued to listen.

"I see you're here to report some information," Snape spoke.

"And both of your opinions," Harry added briskly.

"Yes our opinion too," the Potion Master said in a delighted tone. "Tell me - What have you found lately?"

Hermione could hear some foot shuffling; probably Harry was pacing around the room. "It's been rather odd lately, professor. This is the fourth one and I thought I had enough clues, but Ron's death marred my theory of solving this case." This piece of information gave Hermione quite a shock.

"How so?" Lupin asked.

"Well, his body was found in the Great Hall, where it was easily spotted. Further more, unlike the last two, his body was not brutally severed, leaving me to believe that the murderer was either another person or he wanted to do the job quickly. Ron's face being disfigured led to me believe that this was the same murderer," Harry explained in a low tone.

"That is quite true Harry, but what's your point?" Lupin asked.

"I'm not sure, but it seems to me that Ron was killed accidentally," Harry deducted and a strong silence occurred after he spoke. Hermione was keen on listening more.

"What about that boy from your house? I believe his name was Jack Sloper, wasn't he the prime suspect?" drawled Snape.

"Getting sacked by Ron for a dumb strategy is not a good motive, it is more of a grudge than revenge," said Harry whose feet stopped moving.

"Great work, Harry!" Snape praised. Hermione was momentarily shocked with disbelief. "But how are you going to prove his innocence?"

"I have asked him some questions regarding his whereabouts that night and sadly, his alibi is not solid," said Harry gloomily. Hermione tried to fight the urge to burst into the room and yell 'Sloper is the murderer! He was going to the Great Hall upon being called by Ron.'

"What happened then?"

"According to him, Ron left the Gryffindor Tower at midnight, doing I don't know what, but I know he was a latenighter. Sloper and a fellow friend of his, Marion left an hour or so later. Marion told Sloper that he wanted to go to the loo and he would meet him later in the hall. Sloper said that when he reached the Great Hall, Ron was already dead and Marion came afterwards."

Hermione's mind screamed 'Liar! Liar!' but she remained quiet, afraid that her cover might be blown.

"Then this Marion could prove Sloper's innocent," said Snape adequately.

"Yes of course, but the Aurors mistook Marion's statement as someone who discovered Sloper murdered Ron and no one believed him," said Harry.

"Nobody believed him?!" Lupin cried in outrage. "By thunder, Mr. Sloper should be reported to Dumbledore."

"Already taken care of," Snape said quickly. "Sloper is right now staying with the Hufflepuffs."

"Really? The Hufflepuffs? Could they-?"

"Don't worry, Remus. The Hufflepuffs are loyal and also are my friends," said Harry proudly.

Hermione flinched at this statement. 'When did Harry become friends with them?' she thought. This was the second revelation about Harry that she found.

"I would like to give you my opinion Harry, but time seems to be against us," said Snape.

"It's alright professor, but can I have your permission to check out the crime scene?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Of course, perhaps I should give you a Letter of Boundary so that you can walk freely at night," said Snape genuinely.

"Thank you Severus, and you too Remus for listening. I will go now," said Harry as footsteps could be heard moving towards the door. She frantically moved out of the way as the door almost knocked her over. Harry closed the door and passed her. She let out a huge breath of relief and continually followed Harry.

It was lunchtime and the loud chattering noises made by students filled the Great Hall. The Slytherin table was cleared and the Slytherins were informed to sit at the other tables. The table could not be used for a week, as that was the place where Ron was found murdered. The Slytherins did not protest when they were told. Aurors were still investigating the recent murders in Hogwarts that have been plaguing the school recently. But to no avail. Nothing could be found. The murderer was as slick and cunning as a fox.

Hermione was still keeping an eye on Harry but he was no where to be found in the now crammed Gryffindor table. Draco and Ginny, who sat opposite of her, stared anxiously at their friend. She finally found him. He was sitting at the end of the table near the double door and talking to a boy with mousy brown hair: Dennis Creevy!

"Since when did Harry respond to his fans," said Hermione indignantly and bewildered at the fact that Harry was talking to his number two fan, Dennis Creevy.

Draco and Ginny was surprised at her outburst. "He's talking to a Creevy! That's not the Harry I knew. He doesn't like being followed by publicity, especially the Creevys." The couple looked lost at each other as to who Hermione was speaking to.

"Are you listening to me?" she looked at the couple crossly. The couple was puzzled at her. "Is Harry talking to his fan club rather than his friends?" her face was obviously showing anger. She was now attracting attention of nearby students. "He's talking to a Creevy now, and then what is Creevy going to do, kiss his shoes and offer him some food like those poor house-elves?"

A clanking sound interrupted Hermione's irritating speech. Someone dropped a spoon on his plate strongly. Everyone turned to see a boy running out of the Great Hall in a trivial manner.

"Now you done it," Ginny exclaimed, turning away from the now retreating form of Colin Creevy.

Hermione peered around the table, as eyes looked irate at her. "What did I do wrong?" she asked, eyes demanding answers.

Ginny motioned for her to lean in closer, ignoring the other students' glares. "Let's just say Colin is not on good terms with his brother," the red head said softly.

"Why? What happened?" she asked rather quickly and keenly. Ginny looked at Draco for reassurance and the Slytherin nodded in response.

"Some months ago, Harry saved Dennis from being beat up by a bunch of bully Slytherins above his year-"Hermione eyed Draco furtively and the Head Boy was slightly taken aback, "-no it's not Draco who done it. That isn't the point. Harry saved him. Dennis and Harry became close like siblings after that. Dennis changed from that onward, he became less annoying and less of a trouble. Harry once said to me Dennis was very reliable and very helpful," Ginny ended with a beaming smile.

Hermione snorted.

"Reliable? Helpful?" said Hermione puzzled. Draco cut in.

"That's what he sees in that fourth year, all we've seen is a very hardworking kid who recently detached himself form his brother's obsession and it was a good call," he said and got an approving smile from Ginny.

Hermione pondered for a moment, trying to etch the information in her ever-growing brain. Harry's changes were sure a shocking revelation to her and she knew the changes were physical, mental and social. The first was his physical appearance, then his somewhat incredulous knowledge to know Amy's broom whereabouts. Thirdly, the way he talked to Snape was not what it used to be, no tension was evident between them like the feud was over and Snape buried the hatchet. That new part of him she liked the most about. Harry befriended the Hufflepuffs; maybe that was the reason he knew so much about the greenhouses. Lastly, he talked and formed a bond with Dennis Creevy. This was what she learned about in the expense of two hours.

Later that evening, Hermione was in the common room, still keeping an eye on Harry who seemed to indulge in that black book. She was happy that Harry finally learned to enjoy reading, but felt guilty and regretted that she was not the one who made him. She mostly wanted to find this person and give a piece of her mind. Her thoughts were interrupted when Harry strode out of the common room. She hurriedly followed.

As she followed him down the revolving staircases, she noticed only a few would notice Harry and a lot would ignore him. He was the hero of the Wizarding world, and the world itself in large, and yet no one looked at him full of admiration and amazement. She guessed Harry got his wish. She did not know if she should be happy for him or not.

His walk ended when he reached the lake. Hermione quickly hid behind the bushes as Harry circled the lake. She took a great hiding spot where one could see all of the grand view of the lake at its best. The lake, reflecting the sun's shining light on the surface in this near cold climate, was soothing and calming her soul. It was a great romantic scene but Hermione had no time for this as she watched Harry intensely. Hermione watched as Harry walked toward another person.

Hermione tried to make out the appearance of the man throwing stones at the lake. He was tall, built and had dark skin. Harry soon joined the man in his pointless activity. She could see small ripples on the lake as the stones skipped along the surface. She recognized the familiar man, but from where? Thinking deeply for a second, she placed the man as one of the member of the Order of the Phoenix and a very good and skilled Auror, Kingsley Shacklebolt. Why did Harry want to talk to an Auror? Did he want to get an early entrance to become an Auror? But why keep it a secret? But had Harry changed? Did he want to become one himself?

Meanwhile Harry was reporting to Kingsley just like he did to Snape and Lupin. Kingsley in turn gave some useful information to him and his best deduction as well. They did have a good laugh about it.

"Nearly Headless Nick said he saw a glimpse of the murderer when he walked past the Great Hall: A very thin and lanky fellow. Odd thing was he has white hair," said Kingsley in his deep tone voice.

Harry felt great when he heard this piece of information. "Great! Now we can prove that Jack Sloper is innocent. The kid is quite built, not thin," he said delightedly, showing his grin to Kingsley, but the Auror had other thing to speak.

"I know that is great, but no one in Hogwarts has white hair other than the professor and you know they have a meeting with Dumbledore that very same time," said Kingsley frowning at that thought.

"None of the professors did it, Kingsley and you know it," said Harry as a reminder.

"I know, the ghosts didn't see what they thought they saw," the Auror quoted. "Besides Phillips is a desperate fellow, he will have any kind of evidence, whether it's true or false. Then, he makes his own assumptions which are farfetched and manipulating people easily."

Harry stopped throwing stones and thought for a second,

"So all I need is a firm evidence to prove Sloper's innocence."

Harry bid farewell to the Auror, who had become a great informant to him. He was back at the castle for some dinner seeing it was dark already. During dinner, he glanced at Sloper who was eating among the Hufflepuffs with a hundred eyes shooting glares at the kid. Harry knew he has to prove Sloper's innocence fast and formed some theories to connect the dots that plague to poor lad life and turn-it-around. The raven-haired boy was also aware of people gazing secretly at him, one being his former bestfriend.

That night, Harry got out of bed and went out of the tower towards the Great Hall. He had not need the invisibility cloak as he had grand privileges after he defeated Voldemort. One, being able to walk at night after curfew. He reached the place without any disturbances from the prefects or Filch, although the old man shot mean words at him. He made his way to the Slytherin table. He had been here two times before, but never had the satisfaction of gaining clues.

The Aurors who were supposed to be guarding the place were gone. Under the command of an impudent careless Auror named Barry Phillips, they were on orders to leave the scene, seeing it as unimportant. Aurors these days were lazy and a bit lacking in performance. But Harry was thankful because he could not have stepped onto the crime scene if the Aurors were here. He searched the table thoroughly, especially under the table.

When he was at the middle part of the table, he heard the bench move. He knew he was being followed. "You can come out now, Hermione!"

Hermione gasped, she was so intent on following Harry that she accidentally knocked the bench. Surrendering, she got out of the cloak with a face flushed with embarrassment.

"So," Harry drawled, "you've been following me since this morning, haven't you?" Her face was innocent yet full of awkward embarrassment. "Nosy, aren't you Hermione?" his tone was of quiet and calm and have no intention of being sarcastic or joking. He peered around the scene, ignoring the girl beside him. Hermione waited for any more comments but nothing came.

"Aren't you going to ask me why am I here?" she grinned meekly.

"No," Harry withdrew his wand from his cloak, "Lumos. You're here because you wanted to know about me, why I changed. Being the curious one, you're eager to know such things and you always wanted to know and must know it." He knelt down and checked the cold stone floor under the table.

Hermione felt astonished yet again. He completely described her full intention and here now two people in the middle of the dark and dim lit hall, standing on the forbidden crime scene where their late friend was killed. She thought he must be searching for Ron's killer.

"So, um, need help?" she asked full of hope. She genuinely wanted to be his best friend again.

"No thanks," he replied.

"But you're solving an impossible case here!" she protested, her voice was high enough that it echoed. Harry spun around and stared crossly at her.

"Keep quiet, we don't want to attract any unwanted attention here." He went back to his search. She blushed again; raising her voice was not a good idea.

"Ha! Found something," Harry exclaimed, he outstretched his hand under the bench to pick up something.

"What is it?" Hermione quickly knelt beside him, as eager as he was.

"Dirt!"

"Dirt?" she looked incredulously at him.

"Here touch it," he put some of the dirt on the back of her hand. Her reaction was to quickly wipe it away.

"That's cold! What did you do that for?" she glared at him, but he ignored her. Harry stood up and wiped the dirt away from his hand.

"How long does it take for someone to walk from the Gryffindor common room to the Great Hall?" his question made her frown. He was completely ignoring her.

"Fifteen to seventeen minutes," she answered despite the ignorance.

"Thank you, that's all I need." he said and walked away from her for the second time. She was shocked and ran to chase him but lost him when she got out of the hall. Another thing she learned about Harry, he was slick.

Unknown to her, a silent figure was watching her from the shadows, cursing Harry Potter's disturbance.

* * *

Thank you Rackhmar for beta-ing this chapter two times and my laptop is on top condition. I regretfully wanted to say that i promise to do thirty chapters of my stories but this laptop was infected and needed to be rebooted. So i hope i can update all my stories in the future. thank you.


	5. The Hufflepuffs

**Teenage Detective**

**Chapter 4: The Hufflepuffs**

The morning after, Hermione ate her breakfast, which consisted of toast and orange juice, quickly before anyone else. After that, she waited for Harry in the invisibility cloak just like yesterday. She wasn't going to be careless like last night after being discovered many times by him. She was surprised that Harry was not that angry with her, does that mean he cares? He didn't reveal her when he went to see Snape and Lupin. Her mind was beginning to spin so she pushed the thought of yesterday away. Then Harry came down from the boys' dorm like she expected, but what she didn't expect was he had company in the form of Dennis Creevey.

"Ready to go, Dennis," said Harry, grinning cheerily as he fastened his robe.

"You Betcha," said the young Creevey delightedly. The two boys went off with Hermione sneakily behind them just five feet away. It would be odd for the Head Girl to be seen spying on her former bestfriend. That was where the invisibility cloak came in handy.

Her first surprise of the day came quickly when Harry and Dennis walked up to the portrait hole of the Hufflepuff's common room. She halted a few feet away from them and saw two people clad in Hufflepuff uniform robe with shiny prefect badges on their bosom. Hermione recognised them as the pompous Ernie Macmillan and the pink faced Hannah Abbott.

"Morning Harry!" squeaked Hannah delightedly. Ernie tried to shush her for manners but she shrugged him off.

"Morning to you too, Hannah, Ernie," Harry replied.

Ernie turned to speak, "And you too, Dennis," Ernie grinned at the young Creevey. "We have-"

"Good news," Harry finished for him and Ernie stared at him surprised.

"How did you know?"

Harry and Dennis exchanged knowing looks. "Oh! We can tell."

Ernie shook his head followed by a chuckle. "Anyway, Harry. The cold dirt you found two weeks ago was nitrogen enriched soil. It's a soil which brings unfortunate things to those who wish to use it," the Hufflepuff prefect said.

"Unfortunate? – What do you mean by that?"

"Well… no edible plants or houseplants can grow with this kind of soil. It is meant to be used for dangerous drugs or endorsements. Sprout banned the use of this soil for learning but one can ask of the use for it as long as someone doesn't use it."

"But Professor Snape needs to use it for our potions," Hannah chimed in.

Ernie turned his head to her. "That's because Sprout ordered the plants from her resources," he said as a matter-of-factly.

Harry raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Looks like someone did extra research."

Ernie blushed at Harry's comment. "I just do whatever I can."

Hermione followed the flow of conversation but was the lost. She knew only the type of plants and the use of it. The Hufflepuffs and Neville were the only ones knew more about herbology. Her mind drifted to why Harry would hang out with the Hufflepuffs. They were sore losers when Gryffindors won over the Hufflepuffs last year. She remembered they attacked Ron after the match. Just when the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor was over another one came up but it was one sided with the two most powerful houses along with Slytherins against the Hufflepuffs. Hermione thought they were just losers who wanted the fame that she got, that was why Ernie and Hannah hung out with Harry. She needed to get her bestfriend back.

She was so in her thoughts that she didn't realize someone pulled the cloak off. "Oh! It's Ms. Perfect Head Girl," Hannah sarcastic tone brought her out of her daze. She was caught… again.

"What are you doing here? Making fun of us again?" Ernie said dryly.

She ignored him and looked around. It seemed Harry and Dennis were gone and the cloak was pooling by her feet. She scolded herself of her carelessness and determined not to be so again.

Tired of the two Hufflepuffs remarks, she glared at them. "I got no time to waste with you, losers," she said and ran off leaving two berated people.

* * *

After failing to find Harry, she went to the Great Hall for lunch. To her surprise, there was a commotion just outside the hall. She brushed past the relentless crowd, to find out the fuss. She said, "Head Girl here, move over, please." Finally she reached the middle of the crowd and saw Sloper cowering behind McGonagall and three Aurors led by a bright blonde haired man named Phillips. The crowd chanted 'Get him' and 'Killer' which directed at Sloper. She sighed happily, finally justice. 

"This is preposterous!" Hermione heard her favourite professor yelling to argue. "You can't send an underage wizard to prison for something he didn't even commit."

"He killed Ron Weasley!" yelled someone from the crowd. Hermione didn't want to go against her favourite professor but she agreed with the crowd. Phillips, though charming and good looking, held his nose airily and looked smugly at McGonagall and Sloper.

"There you go McGonagall - no one wants the kid here. His alibi was proven to be false. Mr. Weasley went out exactly at midnight to meet Mr. Sloper. An hour later, Mr. Sloper and his friend Mr. Marion went out. The latter went to the loo and Sloper took this chance to kill Mr. Weasley. His friend confessed that Mr. Sloper was near the body and one of the ghosts saw someone running away from the body before that. That's enough evidence for me to take him in."

"Unless you want evidence that's point blank," said a cold, incisive, ironical yet hopeful voice.

Phillips spun around and glared at the intrusion of one Harry Potter. He was standing against the wall, arms crossed and he was smirking at Phillips. Hermione felt oddly relieved he was there for some reason.

"Potter!" he hissed. "Mind your own business, this is Auror business here."

"I don't quite agree with you, Phillips," said a deep tone voice. Kingsley emerged from the crowd.

"Shacklebolt!" Phillips hissed again. The experienced Auror looked utmost triumphant at Phillips.

"Listen to this kid here. He has solid evidence as to why you shouldn't take the suspect in custody," Kingsley urged and Phillips was flushed.

He lent in. "Go on then, let's see what a mere kid can do to save a murderer," said Phillips and the crowd murmured.

Harry gladly step in front and spotted Sloper behind McGonagall. He gave a look that said don't worry. Dennis who was beside Kingsley, looked on eagerly at him. Hermione on the other hand was puzzled just like the rest of the crowd.

"Let me first say that since Mr. Weasley's death, I have been counting the time to walk from the Gryffindor tower to the Great Hall. Then I counted the time from the boys' lavatory to the Great Hall. The former is ten minutes while the latter is merely two minutes and below."

"We've got no time for mathematics, Potter," Phillips interrupted.

"Let me finish, Phillips – Ron went out exactly at midnight alone to get into the kitchen for food. An hour and ten minutes later Sloper found his body and Marion, counting his business in the loo, took four more minutes and found Sloper standing near the body at the Slytherin table."

"You're just repeating what I told everyone. Get to the point," The next thing Harry said shocked him.

"Isn't it illogical that Sloper could kill Ron without any sign of struggle or blood on his robe and then mash the victim's face in just four minutes?"

Harry's explanation took everyone by surprise even Sloper himself.

"Wouldn't Sloper's hands be bloody if he destroyed Ron's face, you missed a lot of evidence here, Phillips," Harry added the evidence and the Auror was getting really mad at him.

"Maybe he ran, after Marion went to the loo," Phillips said defiantly.

"He had three minutes extra which is still not enough to do the damage. You would need at least twenty minutes to kill Ron, unless you want to kill him with the Killing Curse, which no students are allowed to learn and the last spell Sloper did the night… I believe it was the Locomotion Charm, am I right?"

"You're quite right, Mr. Potter," quipped McGonagall.

"No how do you kill someone with the Locomotion Charm? Plus didn't you say that Marion found him standing near the body and that one of the ghost saw someone running… doesn't the two statement made by the witnesses clash a bit. Marion was there until Dumbledore came and Sloper was there too. The ghost mistook the murderer for Sloper and his statement was made before Marion's – Therefore Sloper is one hundred percent innocent."

Everyone was shocked, some amazed, others glee with mirth. Phillips was in disbelief, a boy younger than him has just proven someone's innocence.

"I believe you should release Sloper this instant, Phillips. He is no longer your main suspect but a witness… and you should apologize to Dumbledore for your untimely hiatus," said Kingsley, smiling widely.

Phillips stared spitefully at the black man and turned to Harry, malice in his eyes. "This isn't over yet, Potter – I will prove who is the real murderer but for now – you can have Sloper… he's now officially innocent."

Sloper couldn't help but jump for joy. Phillips and the other Aurors left. Sloper thanked Harry, Dennis and Kingsley. His eyes were teary, indeed a cry for joy.

Harry gazed around and noticed the guilty faces of the crowd. "I think Sloper here deserves some apologies from the whole of Hogwarts," he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. The Hufflepuffs surrounded Sloper and gave him some cheering. Some of his friends from his own house cheered him. The other people from Gryffindor and two other houses didn't react but dispersed themselves from the cheering.

Hermione, who was in a mix of emotions of amazement and disdain, walked towards Harry to congratulate him but someone else beat her for another reason.

"Looks like Potter did it again," drawled someone that Hermione didn't quite recognise.

Harry and Dennis faced the boy with blonde hair. Harry looked irate.

"Quite a comeback for the spotlight kid," the boy said with a sneer.

"Sod off, Zacharias," Dennis said warningly. Hermione remembered the boy. Zacharias Smith.

Harry narrowed his gaze as he coldly looked at the Hufflepuff boy.

"Weasley gone… you crawl back into it. Couldn't stand the shadows, do you, Potter?"

Dennis was about to retort back but Harry raised his arm to halt him from doing so. "Beat it, Smith. There are adults here and you don't want to lose points from your house," said Harry patiently as he pointed at the two adults that were talking animatedly with Sloper. "McGonagall doesn't want anymore disturbance, while Shacklebolt will not tolerate hooligans so I suggest you go off now."

"Hooligans? – Really Potter." With that, Zacharias walked off with a satisfied grin.

Hermione knew Zacharias Smith during her fifth year when the DA was formed. She remembered him as a bit of an annoying boy who wanted to learn the hard stuff from Harry. From what she could see, Smith was just like the old Draco Malfoy but without the strong influence that Draco had over Harry. That made three Hufflepuffs that Harry was close with. Nothing good happened until dinner.

* * *

Not wanting to be discovered again, Hermione cast a Camouflage spell on Ron's invisibility cloak to enhance the cover and set off to the Great Hall for dinner. She told Ginny to send her dinner to her room with an excuse of moping and sulking. Ginny didn't buy the act but obliged. 

As she entered the loud, bright and noisy hall, she spotted Harry just near her, at the end of the Gryffindor table. He was talking animatedly with Dennis whilst eating. She sat beside Dennis, who was listening intently to Harry and responded well with him too. Hermione found the conversation very interesting.

"All the victims had their faces disfigured by a sharp object," said Harry. "We don't know if the bodies belong to the victims. Besides, the missing Walden Macnus is oddly unconnected to the other victims but I'm sure whatever happened to him, he's not alive."

"What makes you think so?" Dennis asked keenly.

"Half giants aren't killed easily, Dennis. Hagrid is very fond of Walden as they are both the same kind… so Walden must be really special to the murderer, and the big kid is a genius."

"Ravenclaw," muttered Dennis.

"Quite right, Dennis. Walden helped Hagrid that day two weeks ago. I was there but I ran back to the castle because of the heavy rain. Snape told me Hagrid came bursting into Dumbledore's office crying Walden was missing," Harry said with a hint of sadness. Hermione never knew about that, where was she when her big friend needed some comfort.

"Too bad nobody cared about the victims save the Hufflepuffs," Dennis said gloomily.

"Too caught up with the famous couple," Harry said blankly, Hermione flinched suddenly. "Now with Ron gone, they still didn't care about the previous murders. None of the Ravenclaws cared about Walden, nobody cared about the second victim, Benny Tong and – and…. and no one gives a damn about…." As Harry couldn't finish his sentence, his face etched with anger that he almost wanted to slam his fist on the table.

"Calm down, Harry… she's gone," said Dennis as he scanned the table, thankfully no one bothered to look at them. Harry cool down a bit.

"I know – I just wish there was something that could help me more with this case."

"How about this?" Dennis took out a piece of paper form his pocket and handed it to Harry. Harry eyes went wide as he read and skimmed through what was an old paper article. A big grin crept onto his face that made Hermione very keen on what was on the paper. She leaned in closely and carefully to Harry and looked at the paper. There was a moving picture of seven merry looking people standing in front of an old grey but lively mansion with some Christmas lights on it. A half giant was dominating the picture and stood beside two rows of people, six each of the rows. There were two women standing in front with a man on their left side. One woman had the most beautiful auburn hair while the other had a serious looking face with a lot of makeup. Both were young, beautiful and curvaceous. Beside them, the man was very jolly looking by the playful swinging of his arms. He had blonde hair that rivalled Gilderoy Lockhart. Behind them was an Asian man, a red haired man and a skinny man who tried to smile but failed. On top of the picture was the headline that said:

'_**Seven Dead in One Night'**_

Hermione sat back quickly as Harry put the paper down. "Where did you get this?"

"This afternoon after lunch. Somebody dropped it after Phillips attempt on capturing Sloper," the young Creevey answered brightly.

"Great work, my dear friend," Dennis blushed. "Can I keep it?" Dennis nodded. Harry put the article in his robe. He then peered around the table and noticed Hermione's absence. He frowned and went awfully silent.

"What is it, Harry?" Dennis asked.

"Let's eat, mo more talking about murders and stuff," said Harry nonchalantly, as he ate silently at the same time his eyes were alarmed. Hermione was astonished that Harry suspected her being close to him even through two layers of spell.

Whether it was their old friendship that still had that little bit of light or Harry's ability to sense the presence of another people that Harry knew Hermione was there, seeing Harry and Dennis become silent she went to her room waiting for Ginny to bring her food. She lay on her bed and thought of what a day it had been.

Her mind was on the person that Dennis called 'she'. A girl in Harry's life was gone? Who could it be? And she needed to see that article again, as she saw only a glimpse of it. She needed to know what caught Harry's attention in the article. Lying on her bed, she thought about what used to be her friendship with Ron and Harry and that was supposed to last forever. It made her cry, and cry she did until she fell asleep, forgetting about dinner.

* * *

A/N: That's the end of chapter, sorry if the update was slow, i have a minor problem downloading from my great BETA rachkmar... and a major problem with the laptop. The screen keeps blinking when i work.


	6. Tears in the Lake

**Teenage Detective**

**Chapter 5**

**Tears in the Lake**

The next day was bleak and unexciting as rain invaded Hogwarts. It was only showery, but nobody wanted to catch a cold when it was near Christmas. The students were spending their time inside, doing anything to pass their time till whenever the rain ended. Everybody was bored to death, but only two people were excluded from them. Harry and Dennis, who were sitting by the window, were talking and playing Wizard's Chess not aware of someone looking at them. Hermione was keeping a close eye on them, whilst doing her own work. She only did this to avoid stalking Harry, like she did before, and wait for them to go off somewhere, so that she can sneak into the boy's dorm. The opportunity came shortly afterwards.

Harry gazed at the rippling lake from the window, whilst listening to Dennis. He did not care about playing Wizard's Chess anymore as it reminded him of Ron. "I tell you, Harry. Walden could be found easily if it weren't for the heavy rain that day. Bloody lazy Aurors, always find an excuse when the work turns hard," Dennis ranted, while putting his rook forward. But his words made Harry realised something. He turned to Dennis with surprise eyes.

"What did you say?" he asked. Dennis looked up at him.

"Always find an excuse when the wo-" Dennis was cut off quickly.

"No before that."

"Walden could be found easily if it weren't for the heavy r-," the young Creevey did not get to finish as Harry stood up form his seat, somewhat joyous and somewhat serious.

"That's it," he said loudly, causing everyone to look at him. "How could I missed it – it's so obvious!"

"What is it, Harry? – Did you figure something out?" Dennis said anxiously.

"Come Dennis, I'll explain on the way. Grab your robe and raincoat and don't forget mine too… we're going outside," he said with utter glee.

Dennis gaped at him. Others who heard him thought he was crazy. Hermione was feeling distressed, her old worried self could not contain it but manage to stuff it and still stick to the plan.

"Outside… in the rain!" Dennis almost yelled.

Harry stared at him. "It's only drizzling, we're going to the lake and I am very need of your help," he pleaded.

Dennis did not protest, as he fetched their robes and raincoats. They exited through the portrait hole and made their way outside.

* * *

Hermione acted immediately, and asked Ginny to look out for Harry if he came back. She went up into Harry's room which he shared three other boys. The short journey made her reminiscence about the day when Ron died. Shrugging that annoying memory, she walked into the room.

No time for examining the condition of the room, she moved towards Harry's bed and started searching frantically for the article. She rummaged around Harry's trunk, the table beside Harry's bed and her eyes paused on Ron's bed.

Though it still saddened her that Ron was gone now but… "I shan't give up on Harry," she said to herself determinedly. She drew her eyes away from Ron's bed and back to Harry's. If there was nothing in the trunk or on table, then one more place that could be kept for secret. She searched under the bed and found several things including Harry's Firebolt, schoolbooks, rolls of parchments, bottles of inks, and a bunch of other stuff. With a simple Lighting Spell, she found books… literature books to be precise. Surprised that Harry had one of these, she picked up one of them. She read the title and grinned widely.

"Basil Sleuth, World's Greatest Wizard Detective – I didn't know Harry read this," she said to herself and giggled. She picked up the other books, and was deeply amazed that Harry had all these mystery novels, and also a complete set of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. "No wonder he has this inquisitive inside," she giggled. She had to ask Harry about these mystery novels one day. She put back the books neatly the way it was. As she did this, her eyes fell upon a silver metallic suitcase with the name 'Sirius' on it, hidden under the headboard of the bed.

* * *

Harry explained to Dennis about Walden Macnus as they passed the Great Hall. Dennis was all ears when it came to Harry talking. They wore their raincoats upon their attires, and walked out of the castle. They trudged through the wet grass and small puddles as they neared the lake.

"So you have a hunch that Walden is around the lake? But I don't see him anywhere," said the mousy haired boy, as he peered around the lake.

"He's not around the lake but rather in the lake itself," said Harry. "We searched the land, the forest but not inside the lake. No one thought of that when Walden went missing."

"By thunder, why didn't we think of that before?"

"Because the blundering idiot Phillips ordered the Aurors to search the forest because it was the plan that the murderer expected it to be just to divert our attention from the lake."

They walked around the lake with careful and alert eyes as they kept a watch out for anything.

* * *

Hermione, without any guilt, placed the suitcase on the bed and opened it. Her eyes gleamed with satisfaction. She hit the jackpot, and found odd things to be collected by a person. There was lots of dirt wrapped in a plastic sealed wrap, and a few parchments that contained notes. Hermione picked up the notes and began to read it through. One thing she noticed was Harry's writing had been a lot neater than the last time she remembered.

This will take a lot of time to read she realised and shuffled hastily through the notes and stumbled upon a note that has the name 'Ron Weasley'.

"What is this?" she thought, narrowing her eyes at the particular note. She read the content of the notes and found out it was the victims that had been murdered. The first name shocked her already.

_Susan Bones, Sept 20th, 7th year Hufflepuff, Caucasian girl, body found near Room of Requirement. Face disfigured, limbs still attached, some parts of her auburn hair has been cut. Sources say that she has been searching for someone._

Hermione fidgeted for a moment. She knew Susan Bones from the D.A and sometimes she was her study partner. Susan sometimes asked things about Harry that made Hermione think the Hufflepuff was one of those girls. The main point was there were murders before Ron. How could she not know this? Maybe the fact was Susan was a Hufflepuff that no one cared about. She noticed there were some dry water drops smudging the ink.

_Benny Tong, Oct 3rd, 4th year Hufflepuff, Asian boy, body found near the spiral stairs that lead to Divination Tower. Face diifigured, middle fingers cut off. Sources say he was going to detention, odd thing he doesn't have one._

_Walden McNus, Oct 25th, 3rd year Ravenclaw, male half-giant, helping Hagrid with the shrewts after his Care of Magical Creatures class. Still reported missing in the forest._

Questions flooded her mind. She did not know there were people murdered before Ron. She had been ignorant to other things than her own reputation. Then there was Ron's name, which she skipped out of anxiety. She found the article under that pile of notes.

* * *

Harry and Dennis walked around for about half an hour. They halted suddenly when Harry spotted something near the bank. "Look, Dennis," said Harry, his forefinger pointing to the ground. "Do you see the dragging mark on the ground?"

"It looks like something big was dragged out of the lake, the mark is still here after weeks," said the young Creevey with same keen attention as Harry.

"Not dragged out, Dennis but rather dumped into the lake, Walden is in the lake!"

"Oh my! Someone needs to get him out of there. We need to call for help quickly."

Denniswas about to run to the castle but Harry stopped him. "I got a better idea." Harry took out a vile from his robe and dropped three drops of its yellow liquid content on his tongue.

"What's that? It better not be what I think it is," said Dennis with a hint of doubt and anxious.

Harry grinned at the boy. "It's a Linguistic Potion." He moved towards the bank with Dennis following him with utter curiosity. The raven haired knelt down and spoke something. His voice sounded like screeching and puzzled Dennis.

"What are you doing? Calling a mermaid?"

Harry turned to him and grinned appreciatively. "That's what I intended to do."

A minute later, a creature that almost resembled a man came splashing out of the water. He has grayish skin and long, wild dark green hair. He swam towards Harry, its silver fish tail was visible under the water. Harry smiled and nodded as though greeting it. The merman smiled in return. Both of them exchanged some words in the merpeople language, leaving Dennis feeling abandoned and distant as he was confused. The merman dived back into the water.

"What did you say to him?" Dennis quickly asked after the merman was gone.

"Sorry to make you stand there, listening to our babbling," Harry said as he stood up.

"It's quite alright, what did you ask him anyway?"

"Do you know how I discern Walden is in the lake?" Harry asked back, ignoring the boy's question but the boy shook his head. "That day when the rain was heavy, the Aurors did check the lake but did not discover this dragging marks that stretch from here to the forest because the water level was high that day that the water went into the forest due to the rain. Basic Muggle Science knowledge, the water covered up the dragging mark but lucky for us, the mark was still here."

Dennis was in utter astonishment by Harry's explanation. "So what now?"

"The merperson that I called upon is going to contact his people to find Walden's body or whatever left of him for us," said Harry in a suspense tone. The young Creevey turned all of the sudden… scared. Harry noticed this and spoke, "Whatever we're going to find, it's not going to be pleasant so I advise you to hold your stomach."

"So we wait," said the young Creevey anxiously.

"Yes – if you want, you can call the professors now," said Harry thoughtfully.

"No, I want to see it." Dennis grinned weakly.

"Suit yourself."

* * *

Meanwhile, Hermione was examining the article thoroughly. She still did not quite get as to why Harry smiled widely after seeing this article. All she knew was it was in the seventies. The picture of the seven people in front of the grey mansion did not have anything interesting in it, save some of them looked peculiar to her. She read it again…

_Crossing Guards, Oct 30th 1970 – Seven people were killed in a mysterious massacre that happened yesterday. They were discovered by Dr. Warwick, who always makes a visit to Crossing Guards mansion every afternoon. All victims have their faces disfigured. The main suspect was the guard of the mansion, Edward Mendy, a muggle reported missing for three days. People from nearby town Abertown, have been inform to keep a lookout for the man, who is described as thin and pale with black hair._

_The Wizarding World was devastated by the death of the famous wizards and witches. Among those who were killed was Aldon Welltaker, son of galleonaire Massimo Welltaker._

Hermione examined the picture again and Aldon was the jolly man that almost resembled Gilderoy Lockhart. But in her heart, Aldon also resemble someone she knew.

_Aldon was successful on his own even without his father's influence. He created the nitros dirt, a dangerous item that can develop high quality medicine. Another victim was Geraldo Smith, or Gerald Smith, a scientist who is an expert in mortuary magic whose wife died only a year ago._

Hermione felt pity for him, and checked out the picture again. It was the slouching skinny man who grabbed her attention. His black hair was all messed up.

_But the death of Wendy Cellar turned the world to gloom. She was a kind-hearted woman who helped St. Mungo's hospital in numerous operations and charities. Other victims who were killed are famous creature veterinarian Ranbough, healer Dr. Margus Taylor, Oriental Medicine Seller Wong Hu and Quidditch doctor Bale Candice. The whole Wizarding World would like to send their condolences to the family of these seven victims._

Hermione checked the picture one last time. The half giant was Ranbough, Dr. Margus was the woman with too much make up on, the Asian man was obviously Mr. Wong while Bale was the red hared man, who resembled someone Hermione knew but could not put a finger to it. Wendy Cellar was the beautiful auburn haired woman. If she was alive, Hermione thought she would be an idol to her.

Hermione stopped researching and sighed in frustration. She could not uncover it. Why would the death of seven people made Harry happy? She knew Harry was not deluded but why. Ginny was right, maybe she really needed to talk to Harry to clear things up. She put the notes back into the suitcase and put it back where Harry hid it. Then she went out of the room. Unknown to her, Harry had put a small wooden block near the suitcase. If the suitcase was removed, the block would fall and Harry would know if the suitcase was opened by someone else. Hermione was in a lot of trouble now.

She descended the stairs, and into the common room, only to found out that everyone was doing the same thing as an hour ago. It was indeed a dull day. The only people who were different were her friends, who were talking animatedly. She walked up to them and when she reached them, she was knocked hard by someone causing her to fall down. She landed on her bum but her shoulder hurt the most.

"Watch it" Hermione looked up at the perpetrator who has spoken harshly to her. It was Seamus and he was glaring menacingly at her. The sandy haired boy walked to the boys' dorm, sweating profusely too. Hermione rubbed her shoulder and winced.

"That Seamus has been a meanie lately," said Ginny as she helped Hermione up. "Don't mind him."

Someone else was changing. Yet again this one she knew, Seamus was not the same after Ron's funeral. He was distant and angry every time someone approached him. He did not hang out with his best friend, Dean Thomas anymore. 'Wonder what's wrong with him?' she thought. She and Ginny went to the girls and talked. She waited for Harry to return.

* * *

Bubbles ascended to the surface, not far from where Harry and Dennis were, creating small ripples on the lake. Harry noticed this, and stood up immediately. "Here it comes, Dennis. Whatever form Walden is now… be prepare."

Hearing Harry's warning, Dennis gulped. It was still pouring, suitable for the moment. Three merpeople came out of the water. They were a mile away from the two boys and were swimming frantically towards them.

"They sure in a lot of hurry," said Dennis. "And by the looks of it, they're carrying something, or someone or things in each of them."

The three underwater inhabitants arrived at the edge of the lake, and dropped off a very horrific sight. After seeing 'them', Harry's heart beat triple the speed, while Dennis ran to the nearest bushes, and threw up. The merpeople too felt a bit of discomfort carrying 'them'. Them being human limbs, or more precise, the half-giant Walden McNus' limbs. It seemed Walden was torn apart, both hands and legs unattached from his body. The torso and the upper body were slice opened, revealing nothing inside but blood mixed with water and intestines. The head was chopped off, and the face like the previous murders… disfigured.

Harry incredibly calm, but still frightened, took a step closer. Upon close inspection, he found out all the bones in the victim's body were gone, leaving just flesh and blood.

Later when the two boys were fine, they informed Dumbledore of the incident. The Headmaster quickly called the Aurors and later informed the teachers to come to the lake. Harry and Dennis intended to follow, but Dennis felt he could not take another look at the body, so Harry went alone, and the young Creevey went to the Hospital Wing.

When Harry reached there, he saw Hagrid broke down in sobs, after seeing the remains of his favourite student. He did the only thing he could do at the moment, and went to comfort his big friend. Aurors came a few minutes later and took over the situation. Fortunately for everyone's satisfaction, Kingsley Shacklebolt took care of it, because Phillips has a meeting with Fudge.

"All the bones have been removed completely with expert hands, excluding the skull," Kingsley reported to Dumbledore. Harry listened nearby whilst still calming Hagrid. "I tell you, Albus. This is the work of pure evil."

"This shouldn't be happening at all – Voldemort's defeat should have brought peace, no more lives should be taken away," said Dumbledore disappointedly.

"Then what do you suggest, sir." The black skinned man looked expectantly at the Headmaster.

"Send word to the Ministry that Hogwarts will be closing till all is peaceful. The students will be sent home immediately," the old wizard explained in a regretful tone.

Harry felt relieved after Dumbledore spoke. With all the students going home, there will be fewer burdens, it would be easier to investigate, and hopefully no killings. He did not have any place to live so the castle would be his home for the moment and he could carry on even if it meant doing it without his acquaintance, Dennis. But his hope shattered as a voice came unannounced to ruin Dumbledore's plan.

"You cannot send the students home, Dumbledore," leered Phillips, who just came in the worst of time. Kingsley narrowed his eyes at the blonde Auror and Harry was in disbelief.

"And why did you say that, Mr. Phillips?And without a proper greeting"

"I have papers here sign by Minister Fudge, saying the students cannot leave or step out of the vicinity of Hogwarts." Phillips leered at the Headmaster and Kingsley. He was the epitome of utter rudeness. Kingsley glared at him enrage and incredulous.

"Are you out of your bloody mind," yelled the top Auror, he did not care if he cursed in front of Dumbledore. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Meaning? – You mean you don't know one of the students of Hogwarts is a potential psychotic murderer. You as an Auror should know this better." Phillips sneered at them. He was an idiot.

Kingsley was about to beat some sense into this guy but Dumbledore cut in the argument.

"If that is the authorisation from Fudge than so be it," said the old wizard. Kingsley protested strongly but the Headmaster spoke again. "But you cannot deny the student's privileges to visit Hogsmeade."

"May I remind you, sir, no student is allowed to go out of the vicinity of Hogwarts," Phillips reminded in his arrogant tone.

"Hogsmeade is within the vicinity of Hogwarts," quipped Dumbledore. He sent Harry and wink with a faint twinkle in his eye. Phillips' eyes bulged in disbelief and Harry tried to hold back a chuckle just looking at him.

"That's absurd," Phillips snarled rudely.

"Oh no, it's not absurd Mr. Phillips. You can check at our library, how large Hogwarts is," said Dumbledore, which made Kingsley smirked in delight.

Phillips was boiling with rage, but calmed himself, and regained his arrogance. "V-very w-we-ll then," he said stuttering, trying to hold back the anger. "But this rule is intact as of today; anyone who disobeys shall be punish severely… I bid you all goodbye." With that Phillips left but not before glaring at Harry. The raven haired boy gazed back hatefully at the fool.

"What shall we do now, Albus? If this continues till Christmas, no one is going back to their families," said Kingsley, with a hint of disappointment and irritation. Harry heard this and could not believe the situation turned worse.

Remus Lupin approached him as he got out of his thoughts. "Harry, get Hagrid back to his place, the teachers are going for a meeting without Hagrid. Come see me and Snape if you have time," said he. Harry nodded as he struggled to tell Hagrid to move to his hut. Fang followed them sadly seeing his master in a poor state. Hagrid was in no dire mood to do anything but manage to walk back safely to his place. On the way, Harry saw someone was hiding behind the trees in the forest. Even though the green leaves and branches obstructed his view, he managed to make out a golden speck of hair. He thought he recognised the person, when the person suddenly vanished.

'Could it be?' Harry thought to himself.


	7. Potions Class

**Teenage Detective**

**Chapter 6: Potion Class**

The next few days proved to be bleak for Harry. The murderer had gone on an absent act after Walden's body was discovered and it frustrated him. To everyone else's eye he was at a dead end. All of this nuisance and adding more problems for him was Hermione. The Head Girl kept following him, tailing and sneaking with him wherever he went. He did not have the chance to talk to his trusted people, although he visited Hagrid a lot because the half-giant was in a state of depression and couldn't teach. Harry avoided Hermione every time he stumbled on her. She only wanted to talk. Both of them knew very well that he already said he did not want anything to do with her.

It was on the day of November twentieth that his luck rose again when Advance Potions Class was in order. Harry was walking alone in the dark corridors of the dungeon, when someone came running frantically behind him. He spun around, wondering what the blazes going on. He saw a boy, shorter than him about to knock into him. Harry quickly grabbed him before he crashed into him.

"Get off me," cried the boy, after looking horridly at Harry.

"Calm down, what's wrong? Why are you running?" he asked quickly as he struggled to keep the smaller boy in his grasp.

"I said get off me!" the boy stomped down Harry's foot. Harry yelped in pain and let go of the boy as he bent down to his hurt foot. The boy ran away from him but Harry got a good look at him.

The boy was a Gryffindor third year, greasy black hair, long nose, blue eyes, slightly freckled face and oddly no eyebrows. Harry saw the boy turn into the shadows of a corridor where not even Snape had been. Only the sound of frantic running was heard as the boy disappeared into the dark. Harry had the intention to help the boy from whatever the problem was, but he was too late. Left with no option he proceeded to Potions.

When he entered the classroom he was already late. At a glance he noticed the class was full and Snape was sitting behind his desk. The face on the Potion Master was full of displeasure and concentration. An unknown boy had taken Harry's usual seat and the only seats left were beside Hermione, who was waving at him with her bright cheery face, and next to Draco. Harry sighed in disappointment.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, please sit beside Mr. Malfoy," said Snape, who did not look at him but continued to work. Harry groaned silently and made his way to Draco's side. He took a chance and looked to Hermione and noticed she wore a sad unsatisfied face. He sighed for the third time. Sooner or later, he had to face the music and tell the whole truth.

"Hullo," Harry said taking a seat next to his long time and very annoying rival.

"Hey," Draco muttered but did not look at him.

Harry ignored him and turned to Snape. Although the change in Draco's life was ecstatic, Harry still did not like the blonde Slytherin for some old obvious reason.

Snape walked to the front of his desk, hands behind him, and gazed leeringly at his students. Hermione noticed the familiar arrogance that he always showed to all non-Slytherins.

"Today we won't be brewing any potions," he announced which was followed by cheers from both the Slytherins and Gryffindors. They were quickly silence by Snape's ghostly glare. Hermione groaned when hearing the news but Harry remained unfazed.

"Today I will lecture and you will take notes," Snape spat out. "If you miss any it is your own fault."

Snape held up a lime green fiery shaped leaf which almost resembled a maple leaf. "Now, can anyone tell me what this is?"

Nobody raised a hand.

"No one? Ms. Granger?"

Hermione remained silent.

"Mr. Malfoy?"

Draco tensed. Like everyone else he too did not know the answer.

Harry eyed the leaf in Snape's hand, but a small smile crept unnoticed to the corner of his mouth. He found it amusing that Draco didn't know.

"This leaf is called the Longevity Leaf," Snape explained in his usual loud monotone voice. "It is so dangerous that it is not mentioned in any of your books. Not even the Dark Arts books. A quarter of this leaf can make your potions batches last up to half a month longer."

Harry, listening intensely, recognised Snape was angry by the way that he spoke.

Draco raised his hand. "If the leaf effect is so good why is it dangerous?"

Harry snorted. Draco glared at him before he met with Snape's raging and flushed face. The blonde haired boy stiffened in his seat.

"That's because this seemingly innocent looking leaf can cause your body's nerve system slow, your temper to flare, giving you a rotten attitude, and other side effects that could harm a user's mental stability," Snape explained through his clenched teeth, his eyes were still on the livid boy. He clenched his fist and destroyed the leaf. He turned away and walked to his desk. Draco sat still. He could not believe his head of house had made him look silly.

If anyone in the class noticed very well that this was no ordinary lesson Hermione was one of them. She wrote down the information in case it came out in the N.E.W.Ts. She took a glance at Harry and was shocked to see him laid back and not writing anything. Usually she would scold him but times change. It made her wish everything could go back to the way it was. She watched Snape walk back to the desk and pick up another Longevity Leaf. His behaviour was bothering Hermione very much. She remembered him acting this way before.

Snape's anger was caused by stealing. Harry knew it. Snape had the right to be angry when someone stole something from his private cabinet.

"The ministry has banned the use of this deadly plant," Snape faced the students once again. "I got permission to breed these special plants with the help of Prof. Sprout. So if any of your families or friends are found handling this plant, please inform me immediately. Now back to the leaf, to breed this plant, a special kind of soil is needed. The soil is called Nitros Dirt." Hermione's ears perked up at the name but Harry was ahead of her. He had a new clue and made a revelation.

Harry raised his hand, which caught attention of everyone in the room. "Yes, Mr. Potter," Snape said.

"This plant, can it be use in any potions - let's say Polyjuice?" Harry asked simply.

Snape smirked, "Yes."

"Thank you, sir," he said and turned quiet back. Some of the people were shocked at the interaction between the two.

"Whoa, Hermione, how did Harry get on Snape's good side? For all I know those two hate each other and now they act like buddies. What's the deal?" Parvati said to Hermione but she was not listening. The Head Girl's mind was on Harry's question. "Hermione! Hermione!" Parvati leaned in towards Hermione from behind, and shaking the bushy haired girl by the shoulder.

"Ms. Patil! Ten points from Gryffindor," snarled Snape.

Murmurs of protest were heard but they were silenced by Snape's glare.

Parvati sat back and glared at the back of Hermione's head but she was still in deep thought.

Ten minutes later class was over and Hermione had a good chance of cornering Harry, but Snape called the boy to stay after class to talk so she just decided to wait outside the class for Harry.

Nothing else Hermione had done to discover what Harry was up to worked so far so she opted to try the direct approach this time. It would take patience, but she would try.

Harry talked with Snape about possible suspects. The Potion Master warned him to be careful from now on. The ruthless murderer might just attack him. Harry gave his word and left the classroom but not before asking a favour from Snape.

Harry left the Potion classroom with a smile but it quickly faltered when he met Hermione just outside the room.

"Hi Harry, mind us walking back together?" she asked delightedly, or pretending to be. Harry groaned as he brushed past her.

Hermione quickly reacted and followed Harry, who was walking briskly. "Harry we need to talk!"

Harry kept walking and did not look at her.

"What's there to talk about? Our lives are done, we defeated Voldemort, you moved on, I moved on – end of story."

The bushy haired girl wanted to cry but held back the tears. She did not want to emotionally drop down in front of him again. She wanted him to explain everything.

"Do you know who killed Ron? I believe Sloper didn't do it, according to your logical explanation. I'm glad you're willing to help h-"

Harry turned around and cut her off. "I wasn't willing," he said, his tone acidic. "I was just defending someone who had been wrongfully accused and was being bullied by his fellow housemates because some precious git who called himself a superstar got himself killed. I don't care if he's alive or dead."

"Don't you say that about Ron," she said quickly, tears threatening to roll down her cheeks.

Harry looked down at the girl, who was a good three inches shorter. He just stared severely at her.

"Say what?"

"Say that you don't care about Ron!" she stared darkly at him as if inviting a challenge. "I know you care about Ron. He's kind to others and he doesn't think of himself," she said loudly, just enough to echo through the lonely dark corridors. "He's not a git. And what made you think that Ron is such a person?"

Harry gazed incisively at her, breathing heavily, and turned around looking around the corridor. He found shadows among the torches that lit the darkness and dragged the Head Girl in there so they would not be seen.

Hermione knew she was about to get answers, but also knew that she wouldn't like it either.

Harry placed her against the wall with care, which made her feel tingly all of a sudden. Then it all disappeared when Harry looked angrily into her eyes.

"Are you sure you want to know why?"

She nodded dumbly and gulped the contents in her mouth, feeling scared.

"What made me think was because Ron is dirty cheating scumbag of a liar."

Hermione felt enraged. "That's not true!" she retorted briskly.

"But it is!" he replied back.

"I'm his girlfriend and he didn't do such thing in front of me," she reasoned, but there was a little voice in the back of her mind telling her to listen to Harry.

"You're so gullible, Hermione, he's been lying to you, his family, the teachers and everyone."

She looked disbelieving at him. She shook her head. Ron was not the man that Harry spoke of. But what if it was true?

"You know that Firebolt he owned?" Harry's tone returned to normal.

She remembered Ron delivering her the news about him getting a Firebolt last year. He was going to show it to everyone when Gryffindor has a match with the Ravenclaws next week. She pondered why her late boyfriend would fib about his precious broom.

"He told everyone in Hogwarts that his parents were going to buy him the broom that I had and that he'd show it to everyone. But he failed to tell everyone that his parents were going to buy it for him only if his sixth year test results were good."

The revelation shocked her and her mouth opened slightly. If Ron only had the Firebolt after sixth year, then whose broom had he used? Only one other person had a Firebolt and that surprised her and made her more curious than mad and gloomy.

"He used your broom all those times," she said hesitantly and that made Harry's face turned glum. She regretted asking it but spoke soon after. "That's why he used his old broom for practice to make it look like he had a Firebolt and too precious to use it." He nodded dumbly to her words. "But why didn't you stop him if you knew?"

Harry looked at her and pushed his back against the wall beside her.

"The first match against the Ravenclaws, was the perfect time for him to steal it when I was in my depression, so I wasn't even aware of it."

Hermione felt guilty when he mentioned the 'depression'. She scolded herself mentally for not being there with Harry rather than her fibbing boyfriend.

"When I was alright and mentally healthy, I noticed his broom looked quite familiar when he played against Slytherins. I knew something wasn't right about the Firebolt he owned so I owled Mrs. Weasley. I was mad when she owled me back saying her son didn't own a Firebolt at all." His words started to get harsher and angrier. Harry ran his hands through his hair, evidently he did not want to remember his former bestfriend.

Hermione felt like the biggest fool in the world, but when she looked at Harry, she knew he was feeling even more foolish. She knew this because she partly knew what happened next. "Ron used your broom again against the Hufflepuffs. What happened?" she asked timidly. Then for the first time she noticed a missing piece of puzzle on his face.

"I confronted Ron a week before that last game. The sight of me shocked him; he was scared and knew what I wanted all right. He instantly begged for it."

Hermione opened her mouth in shocked. "He begged for it!" her voice got louder. Then she lowered her voice but maintain the feeling. "Why could he be possibly begging for your broom?"

Harry made a face of sad regret, looking at the floor like it was fascinating. "He said that it would be shameful if Gryffindor lost the match and that my broom was the key to it. He didn't want to be ashamed in front of his house, McGonagall, friends and family. I wasn't buying it at first but then he said something that made me forgive him." Harry then gazed at her longingly. Hermione looked up at him, her eyes full of anticipation and caring.

"He didn't want you to be unhappy."

Her mind screamed and cursed Ron with all the bad words she could think off, but she couldn't let it out. Hermione was not shocked but went madly angry at Harry's statement.

Harry continued. "But it's what happened after the game that made my blood boil." Harry's faced turned angry once again and this time his fist clenched.

"He did his stupid victory celebration around the field and when I approached him in the Hufflepuff stand he still wanted to hold my broom and insanely threw a snitch at my friend. And the nerve of him saying that Hufflepuff started the fight. Making them look like sore losers, making himself a name as a promising young 'bloody' Quidditch player when all of him is just a snippy cockroach. But most of all, the most unforgiving act was, he bloody hurt my friend. Susan didn't deserve his cowardly act."

Hermione gazed at him after he stopped speaking. His anger at Ron has not subsided yet. She wanted to feel the same as he, but could not find it within herself. She was in utter confusion. Her time grieving for Ron, was it a waste?

Furthermore Harry mentioned Susan, as in Susan Bones, the first victim. It was Susan, not Ron as she thought that led Harry to find the murderer. She wanted to hold him, hug him even. She was the reason he lent Ron his own broom, the one his late godfather gave him as a present, to her dead fame howling fibbing waste-of-a-time boyfriend. She was about to do what she wished for, but was interrupted by a boy who came running to them.

It was Dennis and seemed like he had news.

"Harry! There's been murder near the giant clock," Dennis informed him.

Harry pushed his thoughts away at the mentioning of the word 'murder'. Instantly he made his way to the fifth floor, followed closely by Hermione and Dennis, who noticed the Head Girl's presence.

"Hurry before Aurors come," Harry barked to them.

They reached their destination by means of secret passages. Upon arriving, they met a gruesome sight. A boy hanging from the ceiling with a rope tied tightly around his neck. It was the same murderer. Harry knew it from the signature: face was bloody and messed up to hide the identity of the victim.

Hermione gasped and clapped her hands over her mouth. A crowd of about fifteen people gathered under the hanging dead victim. Some were so sick by it that they vomited near the wall. The boy wore Gryffindor robes. It was not suicide as the height of the ceiling was twenty feet. The rope was tied properly from his neck to one of giant clock's cogwheel. Harry thought it was quite troublesome to hang high above him. There was talk amongst the crowd, but two boys near Harry sparked his interest.

"Isn't that Jamie Wescott?" a fat boy said, gloomily.

"You mean the browless boy?" said a skinny boy nonplussed.

It came to him that the victim was the boy that had run into him before Potions Class. He might have stopped this from happening, but the boy was already panicked so much.

"Can't say it though. He used to have a red hair once until some Ravenclaws boys thought he was a Weasley," said the skinny boy again.

Harry immediately went to the two boys. "What did you just say?" Harry asked, grabbing the skinny boy by his shoulder.

"W-what?" the boy stuttered.

"Just now you said the boy used to have a red hair," he said interrogatively.

The boy nodded with a faint 'yes' from his mouth. Harry released the boy with a thank you and went into thinking mode. Dennis recognised by Harry's thinking posture. One arm folded to his front while the other hand had its fingers put on his lower lip.

Hermione, who was tirelessly controlling the crowd and the sick people, was gazing at Harry in astonishment. She used to do the thinking but now it was him who did it. She could if she listened in to the two boys' conversation just now. She turned her view to the professors rushing to them along with the Aurors.

Harry had put two and two together, and now needed something to prove his doubts. He gazed around the area and noticed nothing peculiar except the marble statue of a lion. He gazed at the victim being lowered onto the ground while the crowd around them was backing away. Then Harry discerned something, but he needed to go to the library to check something one last time.

"Come along, Dennis, we need to go to the library," he pulled Dennis, trying to free the little man from the impossible crowd.

"Thank you," Dennis said, but as he started to walk, he fell to the ground. Apparently he was being pushed over by a grunting Seamus, who was sweating profusely.

"Move over, squirt," the Irish lad grunted, though not in his familiar Irish accent and his voice was different.

Harry helped the young Creevey to his feet after a quick remark at Seamus.

* * *

A/N; thank you for the reviews, though not many is good to see some people out there that like the mystery genre instead of sappy romance stories here at FF and normal saving the world stories. Thank you and thank you. The next update might come in late because i had alot, i mean alot of work to do and i'm currently missing someone and thus become a lovesick fool myself. again, thank you.


	8. Repairing Mistakes

**Teenage Detective**

**Chapter 7: Repairing Mistakes**

The death of Jamie Wescott did not cause any worries or panic amongst the students of Hogwarts. Instead, rumours lay on top of the real truth. Over half of the school population believed it was plain and clear suicide, but of course to some it was murder.

Harry obviously thought it was murder. You cannot 'Wingardium Leviosa' yourself to perform suicide from twenty feet height. And those Harry told didn't seem to care.

And to make the situation worse it served only to satisfy Phillips more. He received absurd praises from someone's death. He even concluded off that all the murders were fatal suicide, which caused some protest form a lot of parties in the Wizarding World.

Meanwhile, Harry was working hard to find anything in the Dark Arts that used the Longevity Leaf as a part of the ingredients. He and Dennis spent that all day in the library. The young Creevey's mind was on that mostly, but he was annoyed too at the fact of what Harry and Hermione were doing before the discovery of Jamie's death.

While Harry was in the library, Hermione was dealing with the aftermath of talking with him. She was having a hard time knowing the whole truth and to make matters worse, she talked to Ginny about it. She did not expect the Weasley temper flare out of her.

"I can't believe it," Ginny exploded, the whole common room watching her. "I knew something was definitely sneaky about that broom. Why did I believed him?"

"Believe what?" Draco asked as soon as he entered the common room and sat down beside her.

Hermione saw the blonde Slytherin and an answer for Ginny's question popped in her head. The youngest Weasley sibling told her boyfriend all about her late brother's act. Draco was impressed.

"Well Ron had some sneaky Slytherin in him," he commented, but got death glares form the two girls. He quickly said, "Why that rotten son-of-a-"

"Finish that sentence and I'll hex you," Ginny said viciously. Draco instantly turned timid. Hermione loved to see this two, they always made her laugh with their romantic antics. She told the couple of what Harry told her. When she got to the part where Ron begged Harry for the broom, they were not surprised but instead astonished. "Because of me, he lent the broom to Ron… and thus causing all of us to think Hufflepuffs are bad. It's my fault," the bushy haired admitted sadly.

"No, it's not your fault!" Ginny protested heavily. "It's Ron's and he used you as an excuse to trick Harry and make him believe that you were unhappy."

"But why would Harry believe such a lame excuse," said Hermione.

"Maybe there something more to it than you know," Ginny quipped, exchanging knowing looks with Draco.

Hermione caught the couple's gaze and she knew then that something was hidden between them. She shrugged the thoughts as she needed to go for a meeting with McGonagall. As she left, she told the couple not to tell anyone and keep it a secret.

Hermione and Ginny were mad indeed with what Ron did, but there was no use getting angry with someone who had already passed away. The two girls felt a bit ashamed of how close their relationship with Ron was, but they could never forget the good times they shared with the boy before Voldemort's demise.

The Head Girl now felt a heavy burden on her after the talk with Harry. What burden she has, she did not know but one thing she knew now…. She must take care of it…. And then maybe… just maybe… she and Harry could be together.

* * *

Hermione walked along the quiet stony corridors to McGonagall's office. She was on the seventh floor, when she heard noises coming from the direction of the classrooms. With her wand ready by her side, she went to investigate. She crept slowly into a corner and the noise became audible enough. It was apparent there were two… no… three people talking. She could hear an insult being thrown in and knew the voice immediately. She moved briskly and into a narrow corridor. She halted and found Harry, Dennis and surprisingly, Zacharias Smith.

"Damn you, Potter, go back to your room and be a good boy and shut up!" Zacharias growled.

"What's your problem, Smith!" Dennis growled back just as menacingly as he could.

"Mind your own business."

"You shut up, shorty. I'm talking to girlfriend stealer over there," spat Zacharias, pointing his strain fingers at Harry, who was behind Dennis in the dim lit corridor. Harry was unfazed by the menacing glare from Zacharias. He was calm and quiet through this ordeal.

"I did not steal Susan away from you, she's just a friend," said Harry defensively.

"Bullshit! I saw you two all lovey-dovey with each other around the lake that day, and you both weeping over trash," Zacharias accused at Harry but the raven haired narrowed his eyes.

"Now do you admit you love her?" Zacharias gazed at Harry with possessed eyes.

"Yes," Harry answered. Dennis looked shocked at Harry. The blonde was about to laugh but Harry was not finish. "As a friend only." Zacharias' throat hitched at the answer.

"What do you want, Smith? Susan is just an important friend to me and every minute I spend with her was a gift I appreciate more than my Firebolt… so stop assuming and accusing something when you don't know the whole story." Harry spoke like an inspiring person, making the Hufflepuff seething with anger.

All of a sudden, large grey bricks, size of a cat dropped from the ceiling and plummeting down on Harry.

"Harry! Look out!" Dennis warned him but Harry did not have time to react as the bricks were about to hit him.

Luckily Hermione ran towards Harry seeing the bricks falling down on Harry. She pushed and dragged him out of the bricks way, falling down together, safely away from danger. The bricks crashed down with a loud crunch, turning into big chunks of rocks.

She quickly rose to her feet and pulled out her wand. "Stop whatever you're doing, Smith," warned Hermione, pointing her wand at the Hufflepuff.

Zacharias stared figuratively at the three Gryffindors, especially Harry, who was down on the floor. He looked at the raven haired young man with disgust. "So a new girlfriend, Potter?"

Hermione was about to retort but Zacharias talked on. "You just go get a new girl after Susan. Looks like you stole another one… just like you stole mine," he leered.

"I did not steal anyone!' Harry pointed out harshly. "Susan is not my girlfriend and neither is Hermione. I did not steal Susan from you and that's final." Harry was clearly exasperated with the Hufflepuff. Hermione's heart felt uneasy however at what Harry just said.

Zacharias just mockingly laughed at him.

"Like that's true," he spoke oddly creepy. Harry was taken aback by this behaviour. "It was your fault you know… she's dead because of you. She was looking for you… and got herself in the Astronomy Tower… and the next thing… she was dead…she was dead because of you… you should have been there instead of her!"

With that Zacharias turned and disappeared into the shadows. Hermione was too into the blonde's words, that she was slow to notice he was gone.

"Come back you coward," Dennis yelled. He was about to go after Zacharias when Harry put a hand to his shoulder to halt.

"Let me go, Harry. I could-" Dennis stopped mid-sentence when he felt Harry's trembling hands. He turned around and indeed, it was shaking terribly but Harry's face still showed calmness.

Hermione was worried. "Harry," she said.

He turned to her and spoke. "Thank you, Hermione," he said honestly, then turned to Dennis. "C'mon let's go." He pushed his shaking hands into his jeans pockets.

Hermione stared anxiously as Harry was avoiding looking at her. She needed to do something as he was about to walk away with Dennis. "Harry," she called him, one hand still holding her wand, while the other close to her chest.

Harry stopped with his back to her. She asked a dreaded question that was on her mind. "You… and Susan… as in Susan Bones?"

Harry turned partially back toward Hermione, but not looking at her, his face darkened by shadows. "No," Harry answered quietly and walked off with Dennis following behind.

The uneasy feeling was still fluttering in her heat, but then replaced by anxiousness when she remembered that she was late for Professor McGonagall.

When everyone else was asleep, Harry Potter was still awake, checking on materials that he kept in his late godfather's silver metal suitcase. His eye skimmed through every note he made. Then one last time, he read the article that his younger accomplice found. He chuckled to himself and put everything back in the suitcase. He ran his hand through his hair and sighed.

"All mysteries have been solved."

* * *

The next morning, breakfast was usual for everyone save Hermione. She was a tad miserable plus she did not have enough sleep after her unforgettable meeting with a fuming McGonagall. She admitted what she did these last few days were great as she got to talk with her former bestfriend, but consequences were abound, and she got scolded for the lack of interest in her Head Girl's duties. But on the bright side of things, she learned the dark side of her life and must now figure something out to overcome it.

Her Gryffindor housemates watched her with curiosity and pity. Why would they not? Not everyday Hermione did odd things, especially in the Great Hall, twirling a curly lock in her hair, playing with the food, and sighing now and then. From everyone's point of view, she looked like a girl who just lost her crush to someone else.

She did this till Ginny shook her out of stupor. "Hermione… Hermione!" Ginny shook her by the shoulders.

"What?" Hermione finally noticed she was zoning out, and stared at her friends with a blush. "Sorry – got a lot of things in my mind right now," she said truthfully.

She then ate her breakfast. "A lot of things like… a certain someone?" Lavender asked teasingly.

"Yeah… something like that," she said absentmindedly.

The girls giggled. "So is Harry that good?" Parvati asked.

"Stop it girls!" Ginny growled softly, making the girls turned silent. Hermione ignored Parvati's question, as her eyes settled on three people who were just few feet away from her.

"Excuse me, girls. I got a mistake to be corrected and a burden to relieve," she told them, making everyone look at her puzzled, even Ginny did not know what she meant. They watched her stand up from her seat and make her way to Dennis and two Hufflepuffs.

Hermione walked haughtily, feeling an surge of courage in her, to Ernie and Hannah. She needed to do the right thing and straight everything out.

"Hey you two," she said in a commanding voice, she did not realise she was rudely interrupting a conversation.

The two Hufflepuff prefects turned around, they knew whose voice belonged to. "What is it, Hermione? Need someone to fill in your duties while your dawdling away," Hannah mocked. She felt hurt by the comment and Ernie's comment made it more hurtful.

"Stalking Harry again I suppose, terrible friends he once had… not to mention bunch of foolish people," Ernie said without a care.

She supposed she deserve their nasty comments, after what she did to them since the start of school term. But she was not going to fall, she was going to stand her ground and regain her dignity. With watchful eyes of almost everyone in the Great Hall, she did something that would shock not just her friends, peers and teachers but also her pride, her reputation and herself.

She closed her eyes tightly, almost like grimacing, and bent forward, hands to her chest, bowed before the two Hufflepuffs. Of course, reactions were tremulous around the big hall. Hannah and Ernie were flabbergasted, Dennis looked on raising his brows, Ginny and Draco gaped while some others gasped. The professors had a different reaction, wondering what was going on at the end of the hall. McGonagall and Sprout were ready for anything while Dumbledore had a huge smile on his face as he watched the display of unity before him.

"I'm sorry," she said heartedly and repeated it three times so everyone in the hall could hear it. "I'm sorry for the unjustified treatment I did to you two and the whole Hufflepuff house. I'm sorry for calling you undeserved bad names and never once listening to your opinions during prefect's meeting. I'm sorry for calling you guys, losers. I'm sorry for what my late b… friend did to your late friend, Susan Bones that lead to this whole mess. I'm sorry for not caring and give condolences to two of your housemates. I'm sorry especially for Susan. I'm sorry for Harry too. Please – please forgive me," she huff all the words briskly, though Hannah and Ernie might not get all of it.

She still in bowing position, she only stood straight if they responded, hopefully they did… and they did.

"We forgive you," said Hannah, with a smile. Hermione stood straight quickly and wore a bright grin on her face. "Really?" she said delightedly. Hannah and Ernie smiled at her.

"Only if you admit you were foolish," said Ernie, which Hermione answered back with a simple nod. She then engulfed the two prefects with a hug. They were taken by surprised, but none the less hugged her back. Dennis stared at them, smirking happily at the display. They were unaware of others watching them. The three houses that despised Hufflepuffs were shocked to see the Head Girl apologising and hugging two of them. They were aggravated but they also did not know the whole story. Dumbledore and the professors certainly gave their approval to such unity. McGonagall was the most glad of them all; she was impressed with her student.

Hermione let both of them go, and wiped a single tear that was flowing down her cheek unknowingly.

"It must been hard for you two to receive such undeserving insults," she said thoughtfully. "I'm sorry again for that."

"No more apologising, Hermione," said Ernie. "We too felt the same as you, back in second year." Hermione remembered how they crudely acted towards Harry.

"Let's just say we do deserve some of the insults," said Hannah, trying not to make Hermione feel bad. On the other hand, Ravenclaws felt bad that their role model did something they could not put themselves to do. Slytherins were displeased while Gryffindors were in a confusing state. All of the three houses did not know if they should follow her example or not.

But things just got interesting as the arrogant blonde Phillips, the formidable Auror Shacklebolt and few Aurors entered the Great Hall in an unceremonious manner.

"Morning everyone," Phillips greeted everyone airily, even though he did not look at anyone specific at all. Dumbledore looked at the Auror with no emotion shown on his face. The snobby Auror just barged into the Great Hall like he owned the world.

Everyone gazed at him with utter loathing, for keeping them inside the castle when a raving murderer was on the loose. Kingsley was silent the whole time, but his face etched gloominess to it.

"Sorry to interrupt everyone's breakfast. I'm sure you don't mind if I make a few announcements." He was wrong, everyone did mind.

"What business do you have here, Mr. Phillips, without contacting me?" Dumbledore demanded though not harsh spoken.

"I'm sorry Headmaster, I am just telling everyone that I have great news," he said cheerily, not to mention a bit arrogant. "I know who is the real murderer!"

Gasps were heard as people bean whispering one to another. The Headmaster thought that this was another misjudgement made by the arrogant Auror. "Are you sure you know who the real murderer is?" Dumbledore asked sceptically.

Phillips grinned, an unusual one. "Of course I'm sure," he answered confidently.

Hermione could not believe what she was hearing. From what she heard from people, this Phillips guy could not figure out where the sun sets. Now, Phillips claimed he knew the murderer. She was hoping it was Harry who solved it.

How absolutely true she was, if she only knew.

"I require all the seventh year students from all houses to be in the Headmaster's office this instant," he arrogantly instructed everyone to do what he just ordered. He then strutted off the Great Hall, with a gloomy Kingsley and the Aurors.

The seventh years were frantic at being called upon. None the less, all of them felt dreadful going to Dumbledore's office. The Headmaster himself accompanied the group, along with McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick. They did not know what to expect.

Hermione examined the group, as she walked with them, for anyone who was absent. Her heart turned heavily anxious as she could not find Harry. She immediately reported to the Headmaster. "Professor – professor, Harry's not here," she told Dumbledore.

Hearing her Dumbledore looked back at the group and examined by his own. Indeed, Harry was missing from the group. "Has anyone seen Mr. Potter today?" he asked, and there were few nods. "We only saw him this morning… in his bed," said Dean. Neville and Seamus nodded together. "I see," was all he said.

"Sir… Can I go and look for him?" Hermione volunteered in an almost pleading voice.

"That won't be necessary, Ms. Granger," said Dumbeldore. He noticed how wildly worried her eyes shown. He leaned in close to the brunette. "I think Harry is up to something so let's play along for awhile shall we?"

Hermione looked up and saw the twinkle in that grey blue eyes. She smiled and nodded. Harry must have been there already. Since Kingsley is there, Harry would appear out of nowhere. How true her thoughts were.

Dennis was hiding between Hannah and Ernie, if anyone bother to notice him.

Dumbledore and the seventh year students arrived at the office, where the unsatisfying sight of Phillips leaning on a book rack, smirking at Dumbledore with snootiness. "Morning everyone," he said, a sickly sweet pleasantness in his voice.

To no one's surprise, Snape was there, along with a batch of vials containing potions of different colours on Dumbledore's desk. Tension was mounting as all the seventh years directed their hateful glares at Phillips. "Everyone, scatter around my office and find a comfortable spot for yourself. Mr. Phillips had better have a very good explanation." The Headmaster sent a wink at Phillips, which the blonde returned with an odd smile.

Hermione stood near the window, along with Parvati and Lavender. Draco made himself comfortable leaning against the wall, near the window. Ernie and Hannah stood on opposite ends of a couch, that was not suppose to be there, while trying to hide Dennis who was behind it.

Dumbledore sat on his chair, behind the desk, surveying everyone in the room. Phillips and Kingsley changed their position to the fireplace. Half of the Aurors stood guard outside and the other half were inside the office.

"Now that everyone is cosy, let us begin-" Dumbeldore was cut off when the door was forcefully pushed open.

"What the bloody hell is going on here?" snarled a blonde haired man. The students gasped when they saw the fuming man, who unmistakably was…

Phillips.

Everyone looked back and forth with their heads and eyes, between Phillips standing on the threshold and the one near the fireplace.

Hermione was no less sane as everyone till her brain clicked. "Could that be?"

Phillips, flushed with uncontrollable anger, laid his eyes upon the other Phillips, who was calm and collected. "I got a message from my people here that supposedly I came to Hogwarts and told everyone I figured out who the bloody murderer is, when I don't know who the bloody hell the murderer is, though I intend to find out but right now. AND WHO THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU?" he spat the last word at the other Phillips. The students were disgusted by the saliva that was dripping from his mouth. Everyone knew that this was the real Phillips.

The impostor smirked and walked to the centre of the room.

"Is this an attempt to ruin my reputation?" Phillips scowled menacingly.

"Will you be quiet, you moronic weasel!" the other Phillips yelled, in a different voice. Phillips shut his mouth quickly and turned timid; it was like he was hit by a spell.

Then Dumbledore spoke, "If you're not Phillips, would you mind show your true self and kindly enough tell all of us here in this room, what purpose you have in this school?"

"Certainly sir," said the impostor as he stood still and everything was silent, no one moved and did anything. Their attention turned to only the man in the centre of the room. Nothing happened till the blonde hair of the impostor change to a raven haired and the body grew from thin as a stick, to lean and built. The face change form gaunt to a familiar and manly yet boyish face of…

"Harry!" Hermione squealed with delight.

"Morning everyone," he greeted with a small bow.


	9. Interlude

**Teenage Detective**

**Interlude: Realising and Appreciation**

A/N: This interlude took place before chapter 7 and I ask you, the readers, to read this with your mind and heart open. This interlude has nothing to do with the mystery. Thank you.

Hermione was searching for Harry. She knew it was annoying of her to do, but she had to do it for her own sake. It seemed useless as lunch was nearing. Sitting near Harry would scare him away and would cause gossip amongst her friends. When she thought of it, why should she bother being friends with people who only care because she was popular? She thought of that, but it never did occur to her that losing one single friend over being popular would hurt.

Her Head Girl's duties slumbered, and she was constantly being scolded by her professors for lack of enthusiasm. She should be worried but she did not seem to care as her top priority right now was Harry, getting him and changing him back. She was intimidated by the new Harry.

It never occurred to her that she was the one that needed a change.

* * *

She was walking towards the Great Hall, when she saw a mass group of people at the double doors, she knew it was trouble. She trudged down the marble stairs and pushed past the crowd and gasped when she saw two unlikely people arguing. 

Draco grasped Dennis by the collar, glaring menacingly at the small mousy haired boy. "Tell me… what is Potter doing!" he asked. Ginny, his girlfriend behind him, was tugging the sleeves of his shirt, trying to stop the panic stricken Slytherin.

Hogwarts was under the state of panic since the body of Walden McNus was found in the lake. Some people were panicked and practically went mad after hearing Dumbledore making an announcement that everyone had to stay in school by the order of the Ministry of Magic. Students started to write to their parents, but even they could not do anything as it was an order. The Daily Prophet spread news that there was turmoil at the Ministry. It seemed Phillips movement cause quite uproar amongst his peers.

Students went even more mental than ever. After they heard it was Harry who discovered Walden's body, they did some idiotic things. They went on a hunt for the killer and kept pressing on Harry for information. Then they started to hurt some people, mainly Hufflepuffs until Dumbledore and the professors put a stop to it. A lifetime detention with two of the most feared professor in Hogwarts was given as a punishment to whoever went on a so called hunt.

Now present time, Hermione watched Dennis struggling to get out of Draco's grip. "What is it to you, huh?" Dennis spat. "You're being an arsehole!" he added.

"Be quiet and tell me what Potter is doing!" Draco raised his right hand, aiming to hit Dennis.

"What are you going to do, hit me?" Dennis shot back daringly. Hermione gasped when she heard the small body spoke with such courage. Even more shocking to her that Colin Creevey, Dennis brother was at the side, watching lazily. Prefects were controlling the crowd to back off.

"Look you imbecilic blind boy! In case it didn't occur to you that there's a lunatic running around this old place, killing people. And if you don't tell me what Potter is doing, I'm going to show you the meaning of boils and trolls," Draco threaten and Hermione was about to jump in and stop the whole fight when something amusingly unexpected happen.

Dennis, whose height only reached Draco's chest, grabbed the arm that held him by the collar and surprisingly perform a muggle martial arts throw. In an instant Draco was thrown off Dennis shoulder and landed on his back with a loud thud. Draco cringed from the pain on his lower back.

"Draco!" Ginny went over and knelt down by Draco's side. There was a mix of amused and bemused faces all over the crowd.

Draco was madly exasperated and flushing red. He stood up quickly with Ginny holding him to help. He whipped out his wand ready to cursed Dennis when a small white ray jetted across the crowd and hit his wand. The wand flew into the hands of another person.

Murmurs of his name waved along the crowd.

"Potter," Draco muttered with dislike.

Harry had come up from the crowd, pointing his wand at Draco and another wand in his other hand. He examined the situation quickly. "Are you alright, Dennis?" he asked, his calm and incisive eyes on Draco.

Dennis just straightened his collar and said, "Yes."

"Good," said Harry threw back Draco's wand at the owner and went to Dennis and motioned him to move out of the crowd but Draco was not finished yet.

"Wait, Potter!" he spoke loudly, calling on Harry like an order but his voice was panting. Harry halted but did not turn around. Dennis stopped but turned back to look. Draco pulled his messy bangs out of his view and stared menacingly at the back of Harry's head.

"You can't stand away from the spotlight can you?" he said, trying to mock and bring down Harry's emotions like he always did.

Ginny pulled Draco's arm in warning. "Draco!"

"Why you?' Dennis growled, and started to make his move but Harry halted him by grabbing his shoulder.

"Face it Potter, you only wanted the spotlight after Ron Weasley is gone off the picture, now you're being a noble hero again," Draco accused, and save a few people, the crows believed him.

Ginny was trying to futilely to stop whatever was hitting Draco's sane head. Hermione was in agony of wanting to stop it or see where it led, but finally decided to watch.

Harry remained unfazed by the accusation and made no attempt to retort which made Draco even madder.

"Now the vilest wizard has gone, you're useless so you wanted to spread rumours about this supposed killer and faked everything that has ever happen." Draco did not know what made him said those things but his mind was in a state of mess. Ginny was already moving backwards into the crowd, almost in tears. Hermione went to comfort the youngest of the Weasleys.

Murmurs around the crowd made it known that they believed what Draco said and it made the Slytherin feel triumphant. Then, Harry smirked and let out a 'huh', audible enough for Draco to hear. Harry turned around slowly and met eye to eye with the silver eyed boy. For the first time ever, Draco squirmed under that intensive and incisive gaze of Harry's emerald eyes.

Harry let out a snort. "You are a mindless git, you know that, Malfoy." Harry laughed a bit and it made Draco irritate. Then Harry asked Draco, "Have you ever heard the story of the _Dhampir_?"

Draco gazed at Harry with puzzled expression. "_Dhampir_? A half vampire half human that became a vampire hunter… what's got to do with anything?" he asked irritatingly.

Harry grinned. "Everything… every single sin that humans do especially us wizards and witches in the Wizarding World. You would see, Draco had you read all the _Dhampir_'s adventures, fighting his father, the lord of all vampires, and later killing him in a brutal fight in his own castle. But one of his adventures made me realise how unappreciative the Wizarding World was, making the Muggle World look more heavenly than here."

Some people wanted to protest Harry's statement but they kept on listening. Hermione did not know what Harry was telling. She then saw Snape and McGonagall standing near them but no one noticed their presence. It was astonishing that Harry's voice seemed to draw everyone's attention to him instead of the two professors.

"A group of vicious vampires kidnaps twelve little children from a small town village called Abel, the villagers were too afraid to go and rescue their own children, so they hired bounty hunters, knights, wizards, witches and vampire hunters but after countless hired people have died trying to do so, they gave up and pray for two things, their children's safety and a miracle."

Hermione examined her surroundings again while holding Ginny, who was sobbing. Evidently, each word Harry said seemed to affect everyone. Their faces showed interest, that not even they showed during lessons. Hermione spotted a tall wizard with long white beard standing behind the crowd unnoticed by everyone like McGonagall and Snape but her.

"Then the _dhampir_ came to the village with his unnatural and undead horse, the villagers knew who it was and did not care as long as whoever it was could rescue their children. The _dhampir_ volunteered. He went to the vampire's hideout and took out quite a number of them, and he left no vampires alive. Thankfully, the twelve children were safe and not infected by the vampires. When they returned to the village, that's when us human showed the greatest weakness of them all."

By now the entryway of the castle was as silent as at night.

"The villagers, seemed to change their hearts and minds about the _dhampir_. Their bad conscience took over as they turned against the _dhampir_, attacking him right after he saved their children. He saved their children for god sake, and this was how they repaid him by attacking him, cruel and despicable. At last he ran, leaving no remarks and wanting no revenge. He was not the kind of person to hold grudges. And all of this because he was half vampire, and yet they forget he had human feelings."

Harry stopped, staring at Draco with calm eyes, indicating he just finished the story.

Hermione watched as Draco, whose face was once malicious, turned blank. It seemed he did not know what to feel or how to react. Hermione saw Draco staring at Ginny, and finally how apologetic he was by the face he was showing. Then Harry spoke again.

"And do you know what the lesson of this story is?" he asked, with a graceful smile.

Draco quickly turned puzzled. "What?"

"What is the lesson we learn today?" Harry repeated again.

Draco did not know what to answer. He simply answered. "Prejudice is a natural disease known throughout the ages since the beginning of man and wizards. We should not bear such feelings and notice people by their actions and hearts not the way they look."

The answer was satisfying and everyone understood but Harry wanted another answer. "And…," he continued.

Draco simply looked confused. "What do you mean? Isn't anti prejudice is the lesson?" the silver blonde Slytherin said.

"In part, Malfoy," Harry leered and turned his back and started walking off.

Draco noticed this and frantically acted on impulse. "Potter… tell me…what is the real lesson?"

Harry stopped, turned around and smiled a smile that simply described as honesty. "The _dhampir_ was only doing a job that everyone is afraid of, so be appreciative and be glad it isn't you," Harry said and he walked off, with Dennis behind him.

No one knew what happened, they just stood there calmly. Hermione watched as McGonagall and Snape dismantled the crowd and told all of them to take the rest of the day off. Hermione also noticed Dumbledore disappeared. Then she was being called by McGonagall and she sighed. She was going to get another lecture on tardiness. At least Draco and Ginny reconciled.

* * *

"Harry," Dennis called him. 

"Yes Dennis," he said, with a smile.

"What happened to the village after the _dhampir_ was gone?" Dennis asked, intriguingly.

Harry looked down at the short young boy and admired his curiosity. "Even though the villagers had forgotten him, the twelve children always remembered the _dhampir_ and their words about his kindness spread throughout the Wizarding World as the twelve children grew up and told their children and their grandchildren of the _dhampir_ that saved their lives."

"Wow!" was all Dennis said and he was astonished.

End Interlude…

Dhampir pronounced as _dam-pire. _I got the myth from the anime series Vampire Hunter D, is a great movie check it out and also check out Kindaichi case files comics out now in stores worldwide.

Responds:

**Rachkmar**: Thank you for everything, if it weren't for you, this story would not be possible.

MarkCohen: Thanks.

korrd: I got ood news, HP and HG will not be together cause i'm thinking of making this a series. I mean, let i'm going to make one of those sappy romances scene. I'm not going to make Harry go up to Hermione and say i love you crap.

Ginny22: Thanks for reading.

MionePotter2U: Thanks.

Sparkle Tangerine: You have to wait.

NL Kaos: Thank you for the review and the wild guess, and please don't bastardize Ron, he's already been bastardise enough by other people. There will be a big surprise corcerning Ron and the victims. You are my favourite reviewer.

old muggle: I read your stories, they are awesome. It's a definite AU by the way, when book 6 comes out.

sporty12gd4u: Please be patient as i have alot of things to do.

Disco Jesus: you're great at one liners, hope to know more about you.

Please if any of you would reccomend this story, i will be greatly appreciate the work if you do, thank you for reading.


	10. Mystery Solve

**Teenage Detective**

**Chapter 8: Mystery Solve**

Almost everyone in Dumbledore's office watched in surprise and amazement as the impostor changed his appearance, into none other than Harry Potter. He greeted them graciously with a simple morning gesture, which everyone replied in return.

Phillips, seething with anger after seeing Harry, made another one of his rash decision. "Potter, you're under arrest for impersonating a high ranking officer," he scowled. People turned to him, giving him questionable stares.

Kingsley simply shook his head in embarrassment. In all his years working as an Auror, he never wanted to meet and work with people like Phillips. He then stood beside Harry. "No one is going to be arrested… until Mr. Potter here explains things through," the dark skin Auror said. Then he narrowed his eyes at Phillips. "And you're not a high ranking Auror!" he snarled dangerously, making Phillips squirmed immediately.

Harry laughed at the scenario before him. "That's enough, Kingsley – I can take things from here," he said confidently, after he stopped laughing. The bold Auror never took his eyes off Phillips, but merely nodded and walked back, leaving Harry in the middle like an actor in some sort of theatre. Then Dumbledore spoke from behind his desks, in his chair.

"Mr. Potter will you kindly tell us as to why you're gathering Hogwart's finest here in my office," the Headmaster spoke in a soft tone. "I'm sure it has to do with the recent murders," he added, with an amused twinkle in his eyes.

Harry smiled appreciatively at his mentor. "You're absolutely correct, Professor Dumbledore," he said with manners. Then he made his way in front of the seventh years. "I'm sorry to gather you all in such a short notice, I know all of you have better things to do than being here," he said apologetically. The 7th year pupils nodded in understanding and they answered back, not minding what Harry had done.

"I gathered you all here by disguising myself as Phillips… so that I could trap the murderer," he spoke in a rather guilty tone.

"A trap!" roared Phillips furiously. Kingsley shushed him harshly making the blonde man frightened again. Most students were puzzled with what Harry just said, but Hermione already figured it out. She gave a knowing smirk at Harry in understanding but the raven-haired boy did not acknowledge it.

"As you all witnessed just now, I disguised myself as Phillips by using the Polyjuice Potion to make sure that the murderer would be tricked into thinking that the Aurors got the wrong culprit again," he explained. "Of course now that the real Phillips is here, I have to reveal myself so now the murderer is trapped and cannot get out of this room."

"Wait a minute," yelled Seamus from behind the Ravenclaws. "There's a murderer in this room?"

"Are you crazy Potter!" Draco continued. "You stuck all of us in here with a raving lunatic?" the Slytherin yelled furiously, thus creating panic amongst the people in the room. Boys and girls started acting ready to run away frantically until Dumbledore silenced them.

"Be quiet everyone… as long as the Aurors, the teachers and I are here, there's no need for panic," spoke the old wizard, giving everyone safety reassurance. He then turned to Harry. "You may continue Harry," he told the raven-haired boy.

Harry nodded affirmatively. "Firstly I would like to explain how the people were murdered." Harry looked at each and every pair of eyes, listening intently to his story. He continued, "In the thousand years of Hogwarts history, people have walk along the corridors, the halls, the stairs, the steps, gardens and other places. Even the most unused walkways have been walked on once. But there were also the untouched parts of Hogwarts, seen and unseen to our eyes. We walk everyday to our classes, we've seen these places, but we never bother to put a finger on it."

"What place is that?" Phillips asked, rudely, but in his heart, he was mighty curious as everyone else. "I don't understand a bit what you're saying," he added, just for further mocking.

"I understood what you mean, Mr. Potter," said Dumbledore, smiling arms by the armrest. McGonagall was beside him.

Harry turned to Dumbledore with a smile. "I believe there's one here, sir… would you mind show it to everyone here," he asked.

Dumbledore stood up and bowed slightly. "With pleasure," he said. As he moved people made a way for him. Then he bent down and reached his hand to a small space between a trunk and the chair. "Be careful to not stand in the middle of the room," he ordered.

Harry moved to the crowd and the Aurors too made their off the centre. The old wizard was groping the wall in that tight space. "Let me see now… oh not here… maybe here… no…. ah, here it is!" he happily said the last part.

A noise of falling down rocks was heard and a huge pit was form in the middle of the room. It was almost a circular hole. The people in the room huddled together, afraid that they might fall into it.

Kingsley turned exasperatingly at Dumbledore. "Sir, you could kill someone with that," he stated distressingly.

Dumbledore smiled wanly. "Do not be worried, Kingsley… this hole is harmless, its only five feet deep," said the old wizard, as he made his way back to his rightful place.

Hearing Dumbledore's explanation, people began to moved closer to the pit. They stretched their heads so they can take a peek. It was true, it was only five feet deep and they could see the grey stony floor. Harry then walked along the edges of the hole, hands in his pocket.

"This trap is open by a hidden trigger, and there are other triggers as well hidden around the castle, where no one could touch… but all of them had a common thing… they are all harmless, with no intent of killing a person," Harry explained, but then got interrupted by Hermione.

"But what about Jamie Wescott? He was hung ten feet high above all our reach," she said anxiously. Her thought was back on the falling rocks that almost killed Harry. That was no harmless trap.

Harry smirked, a smirk that showed discovery. "The body was hung ten feet high, it's absurd if we look it as suicide, because it was impossible to hang by the neck ten feet high. But if we look it as something else… let's say the trigger was somewhere near the cogwheels or somewhere near the walls… shouldn't the rope too be invisible… therefore, the rope wasn't meant to catch the person by the neck, but by the feet, an old muggle trick."

Gasps were heard, those who understood were mostly familiar with the muggle world. Then McGonagall voiced out. "If the traps were harmless then the victims were already dead before they were trapped," she said with utter concern.

Harry looked up at the Gryffindor Head of House. "Close, professor… but let's leave it for now and back to the killer's agenda here since he arrive during the beginning of the this school year. He already had taken one victim and took the place of that person to gain his needs. And from there on, he took several more victims and their forms; even students here.."

People began to whisper around, nervous though they still did not know what Harry meant. Harry continued to speak while the pit slowly disappeared. "The murderer is one of the seventh years that I have gathered," Harry said bluntly, creating more panic but the students kept control. "Though not necessary the murderer always has to be a seventh year, he can be a sixth, a fourth or even a first," he said without any sign of trouble.

"Preposterous," Phillips interrupted intentionally. "How can someone be a seventh year student then becomes a year younger or a toddler?" he rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"The Polyjuice Potion," Hermione answered brightly, her right hand raised in the air.

"Precisely," Harry beamed at her and she blushed. Phillips grumbled though no one could hear him. "The murderer used the Polyjuice to disguise himself as a student, plus, he added an extra ingredient to his daily concoction. Professor Snape.."

Snape lifted a small pot from his feet. He put on Dumbledore's desk so everyone could take a good look at it. It was a plant with thin stems but wildly grew like grass and bunch of wild fiery shaped leaves sprouting form the stem.

"It's a Longevity Plant," Neville said excitedly, Snape glared at him, making the Gryffindor squirm.

"I was going to tell everyone but thank you, Mr. Longbottom," the greasy haired man said though not menacingly. "This plant is a dangerous plant that could affect a person's mental stability and weaken the physical condition."

"And it can also show us who is the murderer right now," said Harry, his eyes roamed around the Slytherins and the Gryffindors. Some people gulped in anticipation. The tension of finding out the identity of the murderer was heavy.

Harry continued speaking. "Professor Snape's Longevity Plants were stolen at the start of the term by the murderer who assumed the identity of the first victim. He used the plant, combining with the Polyjuice Potion, to make the effects longer than an hour. The side effect of the plant can cause a person's temper flare and attitude to turn rotten and so on and such forth. In other words, this person is not himself." The last sentence made some people tense. "Now who amongst your friends… who is not himself lately?" Harry asked with the motion of his hand.

The Gryffindor seventh years and Draco too were the ones mostly tense. They knew who Harry meant, so they turned their heads to the one person that fit Harry's description. Hermione knew who Harry was talking about and was shocked to see of all people. "You mean?" she said.

"It can't be," Dean said in disbelief.

"Oh my," both Lavender and Parvati gasped in unison, clasping their hands to their mouth.

Harry pointed all his fingers towards the murderer fiercely. "Seamus Finnigan!"

Seamus tensed and gritted his teeth, while glaring at Harry. He was sweating from nervousness. Aurors immediately acted, they quickly moved by the sandy haired boy's side and grabbed his arms so he couldn't move. "What the bloody blaze are you doing to me!" he yelled furiously in a not so Irish accent. "I'm innocent; I didn't do any of those murders!"

"Seamus!" Harry called upon the murderer's name with a certain power. Seamus gazed at Harry with hatred. "Are you really the Seamus Finnigan that I have shared a dorm with since first year?" Harry's voice got louder with every word he spoke.

"What are you talking about, Potter?" Seamus spoke again in not his usual accent. Everyone finally recognised it. Aurors brought 'Seamus' to the centre of the room, near Harry. He was shouting and cursing as he was being dragged forcefully. Everyone now knew this was not the good natured, fun loving Irish lad they used to hang out with.

"Severus," Harry said and the Potion Master moved towards 'Seamus'. He approached the murderer without any feelings. In his hand was a veil with a thick black liquid in it. Kingsley then choked 'Seamus' so he would open his mouth and Snape poured all the content down the sandy haired boy's throat.

The potion began to take affect. 'Seamus' made choking noises and his face grew veins around it. He was thrown to the centre of the room, where everyone could see him changing. The effects of the previous Polyjuice wore off, Aurors released the murderer fronm their grips to let the transformation complete. From sandy haired to white bald head, from built to skinny lanky old man with crooked nose and sharp brows. The old man, his age was impossible to tell, spat saliva on the floor, it seemed he wanted to vomit. Some of the people were disgusted and look away, almost all of them.

"Who – who is this old man?" Phillips asked, stuttering. He was the only one scared, holding on to nearest person, who shrugged him off.

The old man struggled to stand. He fell every time he knelt. The two men that held him just now, went to the old man and helped him up but kept a firm hold on him. Harry pointed all of right hand fingers at the old man. "The murderer… is you… Dr. Gerrard Smith!'

Over three quarters of people in the room were utterly puzzled by the identity of the murderer, only few knew who the old man was, and one had the biggest shock of her life and had to blurt it out.

"That's impossible, he's been dead over twenty years," she said and got furtive glances form almost everyone. She clapped her hands to her mouth after realising what she said. She glanced at Harry, and saw the evident suspiciousness in his green incisive eyes.

None the less, it was a small matter. "Hermione is right… again," Harry said hesitantly. He took out an article and read it to everyone with perfect narrative tone. It was the same article that Hermione read. "So if this guy is really the wizard mortician, Dr. Gerrard Smith, then whose body did they find that fateful date?" Dumbledore asked Harry, feeling intrigued just like everyone else in the room.

"That's simple, the body they found was the guard of the mansion, Edward Mendy. He fit almost perfectly well with Gerrard Smith, posture, physics and skin colour. With some minor adjustments to the body of Mendy, and the help of Wizarding Mortician magic, Aurors were tricked into recognising the guard as Dr. Gerrard Smith. While they were all in a wild goose chase for the supposed murderer, you took everyone's body, isn't that right?" the last question was directed to the old shaking man, who raised his head and met Harry's face with his beady evil brown eyes. He laughed throatily, which scares the girls.

"You think you know everything, maybe I did kill them all, Mr. Goody-goody Weltaker and that simply too pretty Cellar woman, but what about now…" his voice turned maniacal and cruel. "What about now? What makes you think I killed the five students?"

Harry's intense face held a triumphant smirk. "Because your first time using the forbidden Reliving Arts was a failure," he said bluntly, and each and every pair of eyes fell back onto Harry. "You need humans parts and bones of a half-giant to create the Reliving Art…. Thus anyone here want to explain this forbidden practice?" Harry asked the people in the room. Snape volunteered.

"The Reliving Arts…," he began in his teaching voice. "Never to be considered a miraculous spell to heal, but a dangerous and devilish way to bring someone very dear to you back to life, using six human parts that represent your love ones precisely example like blood, skin colour or the colour of the eye, and bones of a half-giant for creating the human flesh form scratch. It was considered to be banned by all countries all over the world for its substance using fresh flesh."

"And that love was your late wife, am I right, Dr?" Harry asked, even though he was speaking to a murderer, he was polite.

"I'm not speaking," Smith spoke back rudely.

"Very well, let's move on to something more shocking," said Harry, as he pulled out another piece of paper from his pockets. "Maybe you're all wondering what did Dr. Gerrard Smith do after he murdered them all. Well he kidnapped the bodies, and this article in my hand, tell us the story. The day after the murder, the seven bodies were stolen from the magical morgue, and this tells us that Dr. Gerrard Smith did it because he was able to break the wards around the morgue," he explained. Harry passed the two articles to Kingsley and the Auror read it and then pass to the others. When the articles were at the hands of Ernie, Harry called him.

"Ernie… does any of the seven people in the picture look familiar to you?"

Ernie stared at Harry at the moment, then looked back at the picture for a few seconds and then shook his head. "Well look at the Asian lad. Does he look like someone you know?" Harry asked again and the Hufflepuff complied. Ernie looked closely, like he needed a magnifying glass. His eyes went wide all of a sudden and he spoke loudly, "That looks like Benny Tong, the second one who was murdered." People started gasping and whispering in this new information. Harry looked around and smiled silently, like he just won something.

Dean Thomas snatched the article from Ernie, ignoring his protest, and scanned the picture. He too, like Ernie, had his eyes form a saucer. He was in disbelief. "Hey, the guy beside the two women looks like Seamus!" he announced. Whispers turned into mutterings as people talk to each other.

It was Hermione's turn to snatch the article. She examined the picture and finally knew what Harry saw in the article. Each person in the picture resembled the victims accurately save two, the black haired woman, who still haven't been compared to anyone since there were only six people murdered, and one other. Hermione as always pointed this out.

"The red head doesn't look like Ron," she said loudly, raising the article in the air. People looked puzzled at her and it made her worried. Good thing, Harry picked up from there.

"Hermione's right, Bale Candice, the man in the picture does not resemble Ron at all," he said.

"What does it mean?" Dumbledore asked. The Headmaster was hiding a smile when he watched Harry explain to the people in the room. It was truly amazing.

"It means that on the night that Ron was murdered, he found someone, and that someone was Dr. Gerrard Smith disguised as Jamie Wescott, who was the first victim," Harry said, facing the Headmaster.

"So that's how he got into Hogwarts. I see, carry on," Dumbledore told him with his interest piqued like never before.

"Ron saw Dr. Gerrard Smith near the Slytherin table, picking up a Longevity Plant from under the table, where he hid it. Then unexpectedly a transformation occurred, Dr. Gerrard smith turned back from Jamie's form back to his old frail self, and Ron witnessed it. But being someone who hasn't deal with this kind of thing, Ron went to investigate instead of going for help. He could have taken out the doctor, but someone else clocked him from behind."

"There's another one!" Someone from the group blurted.

Hermione's brain went into work. 'Of course, that's how they got a half-giant into a lake!' she thought.

"Yes, there's another culprit here in this room with us, and he helped Dr. Gerrard Smith in doing these cruel and despicable things, especially throwing a half-giant's body into the lake." When Harry talked about this information, everyone squirmed in fear just like when Harry revealed the real murderer. The raven-haired turned to the murderer.

"Dr. Gerrard Smith," Harry called upon the murderer, who looked up at Harry with an evil sneer. "Would you mind telling us, who is your accomplice?" Harry asked directly, all politeness was gone as though he dreaded to reveal the second culprit.

Smith leered at him and cackled harshly, letting out some saliva on the floor. Girls squirmed more just by listening to his horrid laughter. He stopped and then spoke in a sly manner. "Ain't it obvious, meddlesome Potter! Family sticks together, right, Zacky," he said.

Ernie and Hannah had the shock of their life, stared at their fellow housemate with disbelief. "Zacharias… you!" said Ernie incredulously, his finger pointing at the blonde boy.

"What are you talking about?" Zacharias began to deny. "I don't know that man at all," he spoke as he moved away from the group of people towards the door. Unfortunately for him, two Aurors came out from behind Kingsley. Zacharias could not get away, and was grabbed by the two. He was moved to the centre of the room, and ended up near the doctor.

"Gerrard Smith here acquired the help of his nephew, Zacharias Smith to help him get whatever he needed and information regarding the castle," said Harry, continuing his long explanation but was cut off by Zacharias.

"I deny this wild accusation!" the Hufflepuff snarled. "Where's the proof?"

Harry was unfazed. "There's no need for evidence. Dr. Smith, tell us how you came into Hogwarts without being caught?" he asked the doctor.

Smith grinned cruelly all the time Harry spoke. Saliva around the side of his mouth dripped down the floor. The maniac optician spoke, "Have I no choice but to tell you all?"

"You already been caught, Doctor… I suggest you tell the whole story," said Kingsley in a commanding tone.

Smith looked on with a scowl on his face. "Alright, I tell you all. I did all of this to revive my late wife. She died because of a disease for which there is cure yet. I was dying and tried to kill myself so I can meet her, but every time I did someone had the nerve to save me. That goody Cellar woman and that annoying Weltaker, they just couldn't leave me alone!" The last sentence was emphasised loudly.

"I decided to turn to my specialty and how good it was to find a method to revive someone form the dead, especially a love one. The ingredients were found easily, it was very close indeed. The Reliving Spell was a blessing." His maniacal grin grew out of boundary.

"What I needed was from those seven dead people I murdered. How more delightful to see Megan came back to life." The room silent at the shocking revelation until Harry broke it.

"Only for a second and she was dead after that," Harry said blankly, Smith shot a murderous glare. "It was a failure because you use dead bodies and Ranbough was not a half-giant, he just a big quarter of a half-giant," he added.

"The point is she's alive, ain't she!" Smith snarled, trying to free himself from the Aurors grasp. He wanted to pounce on Harry but could not. Harry then retorted back.

"But every spell has to end it effects," he said simply, making Smith stiffened for a moment and grumbled in defeat. "Then you came to Hogwarts, and found the perfect people for your needs-" Harry was interrupted by the doctor, who continued for him.

"Then I kidnapped them all and replace them with the bodies of those seven I kidnapped twenty years ago," Smith said and everyone was shocked.

"Do you mean that… the victims are still alive?" Kingsley yelled furiously.

"He needed them fresh for the Reliving Arts," Harry said. "They're still alive, somewhere in this castle."

Hermione's heart beeped faster than normally. If what the doctor said was true then Ron was alive and who did they bury back at St. Catchpole Ottery graveyard.

Smith turned to his nephew with a cruel grin never leaving his face. "Oh, and Zachy here ask for help with his girlfriend, who was stolen by," he turned back at Harry, "you, Potter!" People gasped at this information.

Everyone turned to Zacharias, wondering if it was true. The Hufflepuff boy did not answer, merely silent and looking down on the floor. Harry spoke. "She's only a friend and still is today. She helped me get back on my feet. That is all to our relationship, nothing romantic, just friends." Zacharias gritted his teeth, listening to Harry's explanation that has been always the same. His uncle was about to retort but Harry forcefully cut him off harshly. "We're going off topic here. So you came here to Hogwarts with the help of your nephew, as Jamie Wescott in disguise and then you stole the Longevity Plants from Professor Snape. Then you kidnapped the victims and replace them with the previous people you murdered. But then I discovered you when you ran away from me during my walk to Potions, so you turn into Seamus Finnigan and put Edward Mendy body high up the ceiling to think that Jamie was murdered. And by the way, Jamie was a red head and he was the one resembled Bale Candice, but he changed his appearance and all the more proper for you." There was a dramatic pause when Harry stopped explaining.

"Now shall we go to the dungeons?" he said blankly and everyone stared puzzled at him.

Snape raised an eyebrow. "What for?"

"To show everyone what's been hiding under our noses since the beginning of this new term," Harry replied. The tension in the room was too much.

Dumbledore, Kingsley, the professors, the Aurors and the others followed Harry. They marched off to the dungeons along with the seventh years, who were so intrigued by Harry's ability to deduct and analyze, that they followed him, thanks to his insistence. Other students and professors looked at them as they passed by.

They reached a secret room, which was cleverly hidden among the dark shadowy areas of the corridor that Harry saw Smith run into.

They entered the room and were immediately in shock from what they saw. Hermione's jaw dropped when the firs thing she noticed was her supposedly dead boyfriend.

* * *

A/N: Ah the Beta version, is so marvelous, thank you Jason!i receive an email wanting to know what's my Friendster account and where do i live. Well i live in Malaysia, and the nick name is Bonta kun. Hope you find it and be sure to add me. Ciao!


	11. The Outburst

**Teenage Detective**

**Chapter 9: The Outburst**

The Panic Room…

Over thirty percent of the households in the world have a panic room including apartments, buildings, and offices and not to mention castles. Built to be proven tough against any sorts of mass destruction, the room can be considered the safest room.

But in Hogwarts, a Panic Room was wrongfully utilised by Dr. Gerrard Smith in order to revive a love one. A capacious room, lit only by the light of their wands, they could see it was made of the strongest clay, filled with the smell of rotting bodies. There were several metal spring beds, worn and uncomfortable looking, and a rusty silver-colored desk. To one side of the room were several surgical tables. On the far side, opposite the door, were three large metal cages, where several people could be heard calling for help.

Everyone stared in relief and shocked. The victims were alive and they were begging for help.

Immediately, Kingsley, Snape, the Aurors and the prefects worked quickly to get the victims out of the cage, corroded with rust. It must have been painful to sleep in something so creepy, uncomfortable and unsanitary. Hermione and several other prefects controlled the crowd of seventh years. Gerrard Smith and his nephew were still held firmly by the Aurors. The doctor leered at the victims. He was feeling spiteful, after capturing these people with intense effort, only to be taken away before he could even capture the others.

Harry ran straight to the cages, in hoped for someone he dearly loved. The first cage of the three that was lined side by side contained only one person. Walden, looking awfully tired, ill, pale and haggard, was being carried from the first cage, which was only meant for him. Harry gaze pitied at the half giant, and silently thanked he was still alive. He walked past the first cage to the next one and was annoyed to see someone.

Ron was helped from the cage, looking almost the same as Walden, but amazingly, he was able to walk. He grinned weakly when he saw Harry. He went to the raven haired in attempt to hug him.

"Harry… I knew it… I knew you would've-" the red head was shoved aside easily when he entered Harry's personal space.

"Move aside," Harry growled, moving towards the second cage. It was emptied as Benny Tong and a very feeble Jamie Wescott, who was in need immediate medical attention, were carried out of the cage. He approached the last cage. It was also empty.

He paled.

* * *

Hermione watched as, one by one, the victims were carried out of the cages. Her heart was torn deeply when she saw Jamie, the first one, looking very ill. It reminded her of Harry right after the battle with Voldemort. When Harry shoved Ron, she knew Harry was not going to forgive Ron. She too could not forgive Ron, no matter how bad he looked now.

She felt a tad guilty; she loved the shocked look on Ron's face. She quickly turned horrified as Ron started to search for other familiar faces. She quickly went back to her duties.

"Hermione!" he called out throatily. Hermione cringed at the mention of her name. She turned around slowly, but the first sight she met was her housemates, Dean, Neville, Parvati and Lavender helping Seamus, who had a huge smile on his face. She was glad for his safety, but when Ron stood right in front of her, her face dropped.

"Hey Mione!" he grinned, and she gulped. She hated that nickname. It was like someone unable to call her by her full name.

Ron leaned in for a kiss but she gave him the cheeks. At that time, her eyes landed on Harry, who was searching frantically on all three cages like a lost child seeking his mother. She heard him calling out Susan Bones' name over and over. Her eyes were in tears at the sight of this, so she pushed Ron off and wiped her eyes. Ron mistook this for something else.

"Oh Mione," he said dreamily, "There's no need to cry for me."

Hearing this she snapped.

"Shut your mouth, Ron Weasley and don't call me Mione!" with that Ron jumped back, shocked. Hermione continued watching Harry.

* * *

Harry continued anxiously searching all three cages. He refused to believe the truth, after extensive research on capturing her murderer. "Susan!" he called out. "Susan!" again he called out. At last, he gave up. There was no Susan, not even a trace of hair.

"Oh yer looking for the girl, aye Potter!" said Gerrard, leering deviously at Harry with two Aurors, holding him firmly. Harry quickly turned to the murderer with intense hate and ready-to-kill look. "Where… is…she?" he asked through gritted teeth.

The doctor grinned cruelly. "Why don't you ask my nephew? He's the one you want," he told Harry, with that sly evil look of his. Harry stared confusingly at the doctor, then turned his attention to Zacharias, who was looking guiltily everywhere but Harry. "Where is she, Zacharias?" Harry asked. The blonde Hufflepuff did not answer, not even showing his heavily guilt face.

"Where is Susan!" Harry asked again, this time raising his voice, till everyone could hear. Zacharias kept on being silent. Not getting his answer, Harry ran to the Hufflepuff, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him closed to his face. "Where is she?" Harry spat.

Zacharias mumbled something but Harry could not hear it.

"What?" Harry asked.

Zacharias mumbled again but Harry still could not hear it.

"Speak loudly, damn it!" Harry yelled, making some of the people inside the room jumped at his voice. Zacharias finally looked up to Harry and glared defiantly at the raven-haired boy.

"I killed her, damnit!" he confessed loudly. Harry was in utter disbelief, ignoring the gasps and whispers around him.

"Why?"

"Because I thought you were coming through the door at the Astronomy Tower."

Harry let go of the Hufflepuff. "What do you mean? What do you mean it was me?" he asked hesitantly, feeling dreadful of the answer.

"I send you a letter, so we can meet, and I can pull you out of Susan's life, but she got to it first before you got a hold of it. She knew it was me, and being her, she went in your place to speak her mind, but that was a mistake. I killed her thinking it was you the sooner you got through the threshold," he explained in a guilty tone, tears welling up his eyes as he spoke and hiccoughing.

"It was too late… when I realise it when it wasn't you… it was her."

Harry's whole body was shaking when Zacharias uttered the word 'her'. He was fuming with anger. Past insecurities haunted his mind. Feeling this was all his fault, but he learned one thing from his mentors, 'when one is at fault, there are others who are at fault too.'

Harry's attention went back to the guilty Hufflepuff, as he spoke again. "She was smiling… all bloody and smiling… at me… like she was forgiving…. me," he uttered in a hitching tone.

That did it for Harry as his anger was pushed past its limits. Furiously he grabbed the blonde boy and, with surprising strength, lifted him off the floor by the throat. The whole room went chaotic as Kingsley and the Aurors tried to separate a mad Harry, who was yelling like a madman, off Zacharias.

Hermione looked on, tears streamed softly down along her cheeks. She knew how Harry felt. How can you not be mad, when you have been tirelessly investigating a series of bizarre murders, to find the victims were still alive all this time, and the one you're searching for was truly gone.

She witnessed Harry held by Kinsley and Snape. They were holding on him resolutely, trying to calm him down as his tirade was not stopping. He kept yelling as Zacharias and his mad uncle were taken away. The seventh years stood still, watching the whole drama in shock. They actually did not know what to make of it. Hopefully tomorrow would be a better day.

* * *

Hogwarts was given a day off from lessons to give the Ministry and the Aurors time to clean up the mess. Dumbledore proclaimed a feast for the returning victims and also Harry's accomplishment in capturing the culprit. During the supposedly magnificent feast several toasts were made, goblets were raised, and yet the absence of the guest of honour fanned the festivity down.

When everyone needed an answer to the whereabouts of Harry, they turned to the youngest Creevey, who just shrugged his shoulder and confused as everyone else.

Hermione was in for a terrible day, avoiding Ron's excessive approach. She was utterly worried about Harry during the feast that was partly meant for him. She intended to seek him out and that what she did. She excused herself from the feast, leaving a lot of pairs of eyes gazing at her till she disappeared. She also predicted that Ron would follow and maybe she could kill tow birds with one stone.

* * *

Hermione briskly walked to the Gryffindor Tower, ignoring shouting for her. When she spoke the password to the Fat Lady portrait, she met with a surprising sight. Harry Potter was carrying bags and trunks form the stairs down to the common room - lots of bags and trunks.

"Harry, what are you doing?" she asked out of surprise. "What's with the packing?" she asked anxiously now. Then Ron came in room frantically.

"Hermione, why don't you…" his eyes widen when he saw Harry and the baggages. "Ha-Ha-Harry," he said stutteringly. "What're you doing?" he looked horrified, as if he just saw a huge spider.

"Having an early holiday, that's what I'm doing," he said hotly, his feelings since yesterday was not fading away, even after a rest. Ever since yesterday's event, Harry seemed frustrated all the time. Hermione knew it was because of Susan Bones, but not her death, it was something else. "But why now?" she asked. "Christmas is only few weeks away and the school holidays haven't even begun yet."

"Dumbledore gave me permission to…. And I needed it badly," he said hesitantly, she nodded affirmatively. "Where are you staying then?" she asked expectantly. She hoped it was somewhere safe and peaceful.

"Sirius' place," he answered blankly, making both Ron and Hermione shocked.

Ron surprisingly opened his mouth. "But Harry…you-" They turned to him, it was definite surprise for them to hear him talk.

"But I what?" Harry snapped back in annoyance.

Ron then gulped, his face showed nervousness. "But Sirius place is… isn't it closed down?" he said.

Harry frowned making Ron scared. "The place changed a lot since I became its owner," he said nonchalantly.

"You're the owner?" Ron said loudly. His eyes were wide as saucers. Hermione was surprised as well with this new piece of information. Then Ron said the wrong thing. "Why didn't you tell us? I mean we're bestfriends." He then realised what he just said, and closed his mouth with a clapped to the mouth.

Hermione was stunned when she heard what Ron said, and turned her head cautiously to Harry, wondering what his reaction would be. She saw Harry standing still but staring at the floor, hiding his face from them. The only noticeable expression was that his hands were gripped tightly and shaking by his side.

"Why would I tell you, Ron?" he said in a very dangerous tone. His eyes looked up at his former bestfriend. "When have you ever become my bestfriend?" he trudged up to Ron and poked him in the chest with his finger. He looked up irately at the tall boy, not afraid of the difference in height. "Answer me, you blurry dolt," he spat.

Ron was very afraid by the evident terrified look etched on his face. Hermione was scared and torn on what to do. "The… last…. Six…. Y-" Ron rasped out and was cut off instantly.

"Six years!" Harry yelled out in front of the red head's face. "What happened last year? Are we still bestfriends? Where were you and Hermione when I needed you both the most?" Ron and Hermione winced at the question. Neither could answer. Harry backed away until he got a good view of both of them. He glared at his former bestfriends. "We're not bestfriends anymore… not what after you did, Ron! Stealing my broom, ignoring me, playing with someone's heart, hurting Susan, and making the three other houses despise the Hufflepuffs." Then Harry turned to Hermione with the same face. "And you, Hermione." She almost stumbled back at the tone of Harry. "You became oblivious to everything around you. You were always aware of everything that was going on in your life. What happened to that Hermione? What happened to the both of you?" he stopped his shouting.

The both of them tried to comprehend what Harry just told them. Hermione was almost close to tears and her body was trembling. She admitted that Harry was right. They were terrible friends. She took this moment to say something. "We grew up and changed," she said. Harry stared at her with the same glare. She was ashamed and devastated. "Just in the wrong way," she said and dropped down on her knees to the floor and cried, shocking both boys.

Ron reacted but Harry stood still. The red head boy tried to comfort her with a hug, but she pushed him away, making him tumbled to the floor. She ran to the girls' dorm, leaving one boy shocked and the other standing still.

"Hermione…" Ron called out, feeling lost.

Harry stared at Ron and his expression on his face was no longer anger or hate. It was pity.

He shrunk all the bags and trunks and put all of them in his pocket. He then left through the portrait hole without a glanced back, leaving Ron alone.

* * *

The next morning was unexpectedly sombre for Hogwarts. Even though there was happiness for the victims, save Ron who was still brooding. To put it simple, the whole castle was quiet, like bad news bound to happen.

Hermione stayed in bed, till classes started. The events last night left her more solemn then she ever had been. Harry's words were too much and had made it hard for her to sleep. She had bags under her eyes. She hated what she become. She wanted the friendship back, the once where it all started.

Lunchtime she reluctantly went to the Great Hall, after being urged by her friends. It was uncomfortable, with people gazing at her. Everyone wanted to know what happened to Harry.

'Well sod it, it's his own personal business,' she thought bitterly. She wanted to tell everyone that but did not have the heart to do it.

Draco and Ginny were sitting with her, while Ron was five people away from her, looking very lonely, tired and miserable. He neither ate nor did anything. Hermione felt a bit of pity for him, but she thought he deserved to suffer a bit until circumstances changed.

Things got all excited out of the blue. Owls, flocks of them fluttered into the great Hall form the windows above. Everyone watched in awe and knew this could only mean one thing. The owls swerved around the room, dropping flyers, down to the people. It was form the Daily Prophet and by the way of the owls frantic way of flying, it must be urgent and distressing.

Hermione grabbed one that was falling towards her, quickly unrolled the flyer. She read.

'_Grey Mansion Murder and Accomplice Escaped From Aurors'_

_After being revealed, caught and apprehended by the Aurors, Dr. Gerrard Smith, a mortician who was thought to be dead twenty years ago, and the culprit in the kidnapping of several Hogwarts students, escaped from the Auror's custody, along with his nephew, Zacharias Smith._

_While it is still a mystery as to exactly what happened, we know that the Aurors transporting the prisoners were stunned and recovered only this morning._

_The Ministry has assigned the high-ranking Auror, Kingsley Shacklebolt, to capture the escapees…_

Hermione stopped reading after the news explained things she already knew. She got up and left the Great Hall to do some thinking.

After being suspected as the main target for the Smiths, Hogwarts was swarmed in with Aurors. The Ministry were taking great measures to capture the Smiths. They even issued a reward to whoever found them.

Hermione was pacing around the common room. Something in her stomach lurched, making her a bit sick. After reading the news, her stomach was like this. It was an indication or fear. She knew where the Smiths were going. But did they know where Sirius' place was. She tried to think hard and her mind reeled back to the time Harry solved this whole mystery in Dumbledore's office in front of Hogwarts' finest and also the time in the dungeon.

Then something came to her like a brick. "They know," she said out loud.

The magical secret door was opened. Draco and Ginny came in looking worried. They've been trying to search for Ron and Hermione. They found Ron alone and sulking in the stands at the Quidditch stadium. They left him thinking he would not do anything foolish and went to find Hermione. She would be the one they thought would do something irrational and stupid, even if it's not her nature.

"Hermione calm down and stopped pacing, everything is going to be fine," said Ginny trying to stop Hermione's frantic walk around by following her.

"No, it's not alright," snapped Hermione, out of nowhere. Draco and Ginny jumped in shocked. "They know where he is," she said anxiously.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "And how do they know that?" he asked carefully.

She was about to tell them but shut it quickly. "Does it matter…. The point is Harry is in trouble and he needs to be saved," she spoke quickly.

"So," the youngest Weasley was hesitant to speak in fear of the Head Girl's reaction but forced it out. "You're thinking of going to London, aren't you?" she asked.

Hermione stopped pacing and turned to her friend. "It's hopeless," she said and buried her face in her hands. "The train won't make it till next morning; no portkeys immediately go to London, no Floo's available and with the entire racket going on around here, it's too late to reach Harry now," she said dispiritedly. She cried because of failure and she hated the feeling of it.

Ginny went to her and ushered her to sit on the couch. Draco took the one sitter and the room was silent save Hermione's sobbing.

"The Smith's are already in London. If we reach there, god knows what state Harry will be in," she said grimly.

In their distress they didn't notice the door to the common room open.

"Don't worry, Harry can handle himself till we get there," said a voice from the door.

* * *

A/N: Finally a new chap finished and beta-ed immediately by th wonderufl rachkmar. Reviews would be appreciated and the next update will be shortly followed. I got a life, guys and my adopted is about to leave me to a better family in two months. A sequel is also in order. 


	12. Truth & Setting

**Teenage Detective**

**Chapter 10**

**Truth & Setting**

Two dark figures approached the door of the house of the noble Black family. It was cold, dark and gloomy outside in the streets of Grimmauld Place. The street light blinking on and off, giving the street a scary feeling to it. The door, hidden from Muggles' sight, appeared as expected, and the two figures looked at each other, unsure of what to decide. After a moment's hesitation, they walked up to the door and opened it.

* * *

When he heard the main door shut, he knew they had come, just as he planned. He grinned while reading a book as he sat in the big soft leather reading chair in Sirius' room. He was going to enjoy every moment of this.

But he couldn't shake the feeling of anxiousness; everything was going too smoothly. He anticipated that an error in his plan was bound to happen.

When he heard his name being called from downstairs, his grin grew.

* * *

In a narrow alley two blocks form number twelve, two figures appeared out of nowhere and landed on their behinds. They groaned from their painful landing and quickly stood up, tidying their clothing.

"I'm never going get use to a Portkey," groaned Ron, fixing his robe.

"At least it's not the Knight Bus," Hermione said, while fixing her robe too. "C'mon, number twelve is right around the corner." She slipped her wand into its holster and adjusted her robe some more.

They walked out of the alley together, a gust of wind momentarily billowing their robes. They hoped that their dear friend would be fine until they arrived.

* * *

The light from the candle shone brightly in the room. Harry knew it would attract the Smiths to Sirius' room. He shut the book he was reading and placed it on the small round table next to the chair.

Harry rose and went to a pile of books on the floor, near empty shelves. He took his cloak from the top of the pile and tied it around his neck, letting it cover him from shoulders to feet.

He heard footsteps approach the door and smiled again. Everything was going perfectly.

"Potter! Are you in there?" growled Gerrard. He had a loud voice for a frail old man, Harry thought.

"What if I am?" Harry answered back jokingly. He grinned and walked briskly toward the farther wall of the room.

"Then you don't mind if we barge in," drawled the doctor.

The light outside the door grew in intensity and streamed into the room from beneath and around the edges. Then there was an explosion that shook the room as the door shattered.

The Smiths walked into the room, cautious and wands drawn. They briefly scanned the room, finding Harry leaning against a wall, smirking at them.

"Now to finish you off Potter," the doctor snarled delightedly, his wand pointing at the raven-haired boy. Zacharias did the same, but his hands were quivering.

"Let's do that, doctor," Harry said. "But let's go down first," he added slyly. The Smiths were puzzled at first. Then their eyes went wide as saucers when the wall absorbed Harry and the raven-haired was gone.

Gerrard growled in frustration. "This house is under a thousand year old security spell. DAMN IT!"

* * *

In another part of the house, Harry appeared out of the wall with a very satisfied smirk.

* * *

As Ron and Hermione approached the vacant lot where Grimmauld Place should be, they saw it materialise from nowhere, squeezing itself into existence.

"Look!" Ron pointed at the top windows of the house. They saw a brief flash of bright light.

"There's someone casting spells in there," Hermione said. "Come on, there's no time." She grabbed Ron's hands and pulled him to the front of the house.

'We're coming Harry,' she though.

* * *

"Stop moving like a rat, Potter!" hissed Gerrard menacingly. He kicked the door, but was unsuccessful, instead just hurting his leg. His nephew shook his head in embarrassment and proceeded to open the door the simple way. The doctor groaned inwardly in annoyance, muttering incoherent words as they moved in the room which was a bedroom for two.

Harry saw the two and swiftly shot a blinding spell in the room, covering it in a blinding flash of light. It was so bright that the Smiths had to leave the room, seeing spots before their eyes for a moment.

"Meet me in the main floor rooms," said Harry, his voice echoing slightly.

* * *

"It's locked securely," said Ron, turning the knob forcefully left and right. He cast Alohamora, but the door still would not open. The red head turned to his brunette friend with a hopeful expression. "You better try one of those complicated spells you've learned through all this years," he asked, almost begging.

Her face paled. "But – I don't know if I can do it," she said anxiously, and looked down at the ground as it was interesting. She had begun to doubt her magical abilities since the fall of Voldemort and more so recently. As a result, her spell casting was a little out of practice. And she was even further out of practice having followed Harry around the previous weeks.

Ron took her by the shoulders and forced her to face him.

"Hermione. You can do this because you're Hermione. The girl who spends a lot of her time doing the impossible. Not just for her age, but even for experienced witches and wizards."

Hermione looked up into Ron's eyes and saw, for the first time in a long time, not the cowardly man he had become, but the brave old friend she had come to love.

"The day you can't open a bloody door," Ron continued, "even if it is locked with an ancient spell, is the end of you."

What Ron said spurred her. She smiled determinedly and nodded. Shrugging Ron's hands off she turned to the door and began to cast various spells on it.

* * *

"Damnit, Potter, why can't you stay in one place?" Gerard shouted into the darkness inside the house. Zacharias rolled his eyes at his uncle's complaint.

"He's not like the dead bodies you played with."

Gerrard spun around, several steps from the bottom of the staircase, and glared at his nephew.

"Don't you dare talk about what I do," Gerrard spat back, his voice rising in anger. "What I do is for the family's good."

Zacharias stepped down even with his uncle and looked him in the eyes, their faces inches from each other.

"Don't you dare use our family's name for your damn selfish experiment."

Gerrard was about to retaliate, but the sound of the doorknob on the front door turning stopped him. Zacharias also noticed this and they stepped together into a shadowy area created by the staircase. They watched, delighted, as Ron and Hermione entered.

* * *

"I knew you could do it," Ron said excitedly.

Hermione silenced him quickly by putting her fingers to his lips and glared at him.

"We need to be quiet," she said sternly.

Ron, scared by the look she gave, nodded affirmatively. "Right we need to go and find Harry quickly," he said.

"Right, c'mon, I think they were fighting upstairs, so let's start there," she said and they moved quietly and quickly through the house, searching.

When they reached the living room, trouble brewed upon them. The room was the same as they remembered. Furniture decorated with serpent like patterns. Half of the room was covered in darkness. They could see the shining diamonds of the chandelier reflecting a small amount of light from outside.

Hermione wrinkled her brow. She had the sensation that they were not alone. She turned to Ron. "Do you feel anything strange?"

Ron shook his head. "Other than the scary spider webs, no," he said, a bit miffed by the webs.

"I feel like we're not alone. We better be careful," she said starting to get scared. Shadows quickly crept behind them. One of them grinned deviously, making the hair on the back of their necks tingle.

"Oh, yes, you better be careful, Ms. Head Girl," uttered the doctor.

Ron and Hermione had no time to react as they were caught.

* * *

Harry, who did not know that his friends had come and were already in danger, was hiding patiently in the kitchen, waiting for the Smiths to show up.

"Just one more and the plans are over," he said, his back to the door. But something in his heart told him differently. Something was wrong. The Smiths were late. He opened the door with alertness, but he saw nothing outside. No shadow creeping towards the kitchen or anything.

He crept out of the kitchen. He sensed something was wrong and made his way to the living room.

He heard noises coming from the room and knew he was right. He peeked from the threshold of the archway and hid in a clever dark spot where no one could detect him. He was shocked to see not only the Smiths, but also his friends, Ron and Hermione. His heart beat faster than normal.

* * *

"Let me go, old man," Hermione yelled, uncharacteristically of her. She was held firmly from behind by Gerrard. The doctor was having a hard time controlling the girl, while his nephew was tying up their other captive with a transfigured rope.

Ron groaned, not from the frustration, but for his carelessness. He was caught for the second time by these people. He felt ashamed at the moment.

Hermione on the other hand, kept fighting out of her captive's grasp. She tried to move desperately out of Gerrard's hands, but failed when the doctor grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back.

"If you don't stand still I'll break your arm."

Hermione struggled a little more, but saw it was useless and decided not to test the doctor.

"Good girl," he said. "Zacky, hurry up with that boy and tie up this stubborn girl," he ordered but Zacharias was not paying attention to him. His eyes were settled on the archway that led to the kitchen. Gerrard followed his nephew's gaze and was surprised to find Harry standing in the arch. He had been then for some time and Gerrard had never noticed. But they had the upper hand this time, and Gerrard smiled.

"Well, well, look who finally showed his pretty face," leered the doctor.

"Harry!" yelled Ron and Hermione in unison. The doctor tossed Hermione to Zacharias, who had an emotionless face.

"I got your two friends here, so what is the smart 'Sherlockian' actor going to do," he said slyly and yet cruelly.

Harry ignored him and stared nonchalantly at the one he intended to help. "What are you two doing here? You're ruining everything," he told his friends. They were utterly shocked at his words.

"But Harry, we came because you're in trouble," Hermione told him, eyes full of concern.

"I am not in trouble!" the raven haired boy exclaimed. "I had complete control of the situation before you two ruined it."

"Yeah he had us running all over the house like an escaped animal and you both came to help-" Hermione cut him off, not caring a single word he said.

"Why did you do it, Harry?" she asked quickly. The doctor glared at her for interrupting. Everyone else looked at her puzzled. "Why did you help these two escape?" Harry was not the least bit taken back by her question. But another person was quite intrigued with what Harry had to answer.

"Yes, Potter, why did you help us escape from the Aurors? You could have just let us go and not worry about me in your life," said Zacharias bitterly. He was confused at the moment by the mix feeling in him.

Harry folded his arms across his chest and leaned against the arch and simply smirked. "I haven't solved one mystery left."

Slowly Harry drew his wand from beneath his robes.

The two Smiths reacted slowly, but comprehend what Harry was doing. Zacharias quickly grabbed Hermione and drew out his wand, sticking it against her side. The doctor knelt down by Ron, and pointed his wand at his head.

"Don't you dare do any funny business, Potter, or your friend here gets it," said the doctor threateningly, his wand prodding Ron's throat.

"How cliché," said Harry sarcastically. "I defeated Voldemort. I must be pretty powerful. Sorry Ron." Harry pointed his wand at Ron and Gerrard.

Hermione struggled against Zacharias, realising what Harry intended to do. "No, Harry, don't."

"Petrificus Totalus."

Hermione and Zacharias looked over at the unmoving forms of Ron and Gerrard. Not only had Harry got Ron, but somehow Gerrard as well. Ron, who was lying on his side when the spell struck, was still on his side. Gerrard, who was kneeling, had gone rigid and lay now on his back next to Ron.

Now, there were only three people moving in the room. Hermione glanced at Zacharias who had the same baffled look as her. She then turned to Harry, who just smirked at the work he done.

"That takes care of the old geezer." Harry pointed at Zacharias. "I just want you, Zacharias," he said, looking to the young Smith with casual face.

Zacharias' mouth worked, trying to say something, for a few seconds before anything came out.

"You stunned your own friend. Why?"

Harry shrugged. "It's not a harmful spell. I'm sure Hermione will release him in due time." Then his face darkened. "Come Zacharias. Let us finish this." Harry stepped back into the darkness and disappeared.

* * *

After Harry was gone, Hermione gazed back at Zacharias, who was in still puzzled. She was surprised to see he was now a few feet from her. She too was a little perplexed, but not as much as the Hufflepuff. Zacharias turned his head to the Head Girl. He looked like he wanted to know what he should do. She was a bit surprised and asked him back. "Well?"

"Well what?" he shot back, looking at her with annoyance.

"Aren't you going to follow him?" she asked. The blonde was a bit taken aback by her question. "I'm not going to go against Harry's words. He wants you alone for some reason and I am not going to intervene. I am going to wake Ron up, but I won't let him disturb you and Harry. Harry has a plan for you, though I'm not sure what it is since he is very mysterious these days."

Zacharias looked uneasily between her and the archway where Harry disappeared. "How did you know about me and my uncle being here?" he asked, in a gentle voice, unlike the ones he used back in Hogwarts.

She nodded. "The fight in the dungeons, Harry jumped on you, making a huge scuffle but somehow he managed to do something at that time," she explained.

The Hufflepuff frowned. "He put in two Polyjuice Potions and a Sleeping Gas in my pocket. He too whispered to find him here: number twelve, Grimmauld Place. I don't know why he did it."

"Neither do I," said Hermione, after he finished.

Zacharias then looked expectantly at her. "Then you wanted to know?" he asked.

She nodded. "So do you. And that's why you came here. You better go to him, now," she said almost pleading.

Zacharias was silent for a moment, then brushed pass Hermione to the archway to meet his answers.

Hermione looked on as Zacharias disappeared where Harry had gone. She then helped Ron and hoped that the Aurors got here a bit late. Neither the Hufflepuff nor the Head Girl knew, but Harry was listening to the conversation with a satisfied smirk on his face.

* * *

Harry led Zacharias to a room deep in the house of the Blacks. The room was set up for a gathering event. A fireplace set up at the farthest wall and portraits of dark blank pictures hang up all over the wall. The ceiling was shrouded in darkness, not visible to the naked eye. Only darkness was looming over the two boys with a dim light from the fireplace.

"I don't know what you are thinking, but you can't play me easily, Potter!" Zacharias spat venomously, his wand already pointing at Harry. "First stealing Susan from me, her time, and her mind, making her go against me, then making me kill her. And now."

Harry was calm and unnerved, his back to the fireplace, giving him an aura. His long bangs covered his forehead and his eyes, which pierced Zacharias.

"Now we can finish this mistake!"

Numerous spells were shot back and forth between the two. Harry dodged Zacharias' advances easily, and shot back at him with harmless spells, but every time he did, he hit his target. He knew he could beat the Hufflepuff with one single spell but this was not the case. He had to fulfil Susan's last promise.

"Ugh," Zacharias winced after getting hit with a weak Numbing Spell by Harry. He glared at the raven-haired boy. "Aren't you going to take me down?" he scowled.

Harry shook his head. "No simply to chain you up," he said.

Zacharias did not catch the meaning of his words until the blank pictures of the portraits, began to ripple and make noises. An eerie atmosphere soon accompanied this strange situation. Then the sounds of rattling chains made Zacharias squirm in fear.

Out of the darkness, trains of chains burst forth from the portraits, making their way to the helpless Hufflepuff. Zacharias tried to move, but the Numbing Spell slowed his reactions. The chains, thin and flexible, were woven around the blonde's limbs, tying him up like a puppet. His hands, legs and half of his body were tied. He struggled to move but could not as the chains were tight. He glared at Harry, his face flushed.

"Now let's end this," Harry said, taking a book from his robe.

* * *

A/N: The BETA version is here, read and review! Thank you so much rachkmar and you too readers. 


	13. Last Promises

**Teenage Detective**

**Last Chapter**

**Last Promises**

After securing a half-numb Zacharias, Harry brought out a neat thick black book. Zacharias looked at it with utter curiosity. Harry held it and raised it in front of his face, covering half his vision of the chained boy. "Susan helped me a lot after Voldemort's demise. She never left my side and filled the place that used to be my bestfriends, and I am glad for her existence. We were as close as friends ever could be, but some people took it differently," he said.

Zacharias frowned. "You don't have to tell me this," he said bitterly.

Harry smiled and dropped the book by his side. "So you admit now…. Very well," he said as though hiding a meaning. Harry cast a spell and the book hovered in the air in front of him. "Revealo," he said, and the book's cover shred furiously, revealing the hidden cover beneath. Harry made a pushing motion with his hands, and the book followed his commands, flying to Zacharias. It stopped right in front of Zacharias.

Zacharias could not believe his eyes. He looked nervously at the light blue thick cover book with sticky notes jutting messily out of the book. He recognised the book. "Susan's diary," he whispered.

Harry then made a swirling motion with his hand. The book opened with a short musical song.

'Welcome Susan, Another Entry, Another Day, Hopefully it is Happy, Not another Bad Day'

The book flipped a few page till it stopped in the middle. Zacharias face was not of fear and anxiousness, but of tremendous amazement, like he just found a long lost treasure. The hand was unmistakably Susan's, neat, curvy and special. He looked at the page on the left, he did not care about the uncomfortable chain around him anymore. He was about to read it when a voice was heard, a voice that both boys knew very well.

"Susan!" the both gasped, very shocked indeed.

"Thank you Harry," Susan's serene voice said, a glow around the diary appeared. "I have a lot of explanation to do here and I deeply appreciate what you have done. As my voice is heard, you have succeeded in fulfilling my last promise. We shall we begin my story, a part of yours and Zacharias' too."

Susan read out the entry that Zacharias was about to read.

_2nd November 1996_

'_Dear Diary,…. I am feeling utterly gloomy right now. Happiness does not come easily. The one I love doesn't look at me like he use to. I know I have been a lot neglectful towards him, but I have explained everything to him, about my work, my family and Harry. He misunderstood all of it completely and we began an argument that almost ended our relationship. We did make up, but as vague feelings. He supported my decision, but not full-heartedly…_

"She was planning on a project to make wizarding homes livelier with plants," Harry told him. Zacharias nodded in understanding though his eyes were still fixated on the diary that flipped a couple of pages.

'_30th November…. Dear Diary… Harry begins to come more and more out of his gloomy stupor and he started to take an interest in the books I gave him to read, save the romance books; he chuck them out or makes a pillow. He even told me that I'm easy to talk to under the shy exterior. I knew by then I am a friend to him. I was kind of mad that his bestfriends ignore his situation, but I will not do anything. I'll continue doing the right thing and stand by Harry's side. I hope he doesn't find this annoying._

_Zacharias doesn't accompany me to class anymore. Just ignores me like Ron and Hermione._

"She was really calling for you," Harry said again after another entry of the diary.

'_1st of January… Dear Diary… it's the first day of the year and my resolution to be the best girl to everyone. I met with Harry, who spends his Christmas at Hogwarts, at the same place he spends Christmas in… he he, odd way to tell a situation… he changed a lot… he was cute… I missed him when he walked by me… he just came up to me like an utter stranger and greeted me with a smirk and oddly like a Victorian Gentleman._

_Then I realised it was Harry, with no glasses and that god awful cursed scar off him. I have to admit it, he is cute, I said two times in one entry. And everyone mistakes him for a new student._

_Zacharias was embarrassing himself when he returned to the common room drunk, and embarrassing me by yelling my name…_

'_25th January… Dear Diary… Harry and I made a new friend, Dennis Creevey, who Harry saved from bunch of 5th years. This 'House Unification' is hard to cope with, especially for me, and the small pupils. Harry found it hard to believe Ron and Draco were friendly with each other. I thought so too; there could be something to it. But the Golden Couple like the change and relish it while still ignoring their other, and former, bestfriend._

_Harry and Zacharias had a fight, but Harry handled Zacharias easily. I begged him to stop and he complied, but Zacharias took a cheap shot and Harry ended up in the Hospital Wing. I decided then I need to talk to Zacharias._

"She broke up with me after that…." Zacharias said regretfully. "And told me not to come near you," he added.

"I know," Harry said pityingly. "But she regretted braking up with you too."

'_26th January… Dear Diary… I just broke up with Zacharias… he was my everything and still is… please help him…'_

From there on began the three last life journals of Susan Bones. Hers and other peoples story from her point of view. Her views on the Quidditch incident, Harry's taste for mystery novels, The Hufflepuffs being discriminated and other situations. All of them were told, but nothing compared to her strong observation on Zacharias' strange behaviour.

'_Dear Diary... Zacharias is hiding something… I know it and sense it… he keeps giving Harry a big venomous glare, enough to send chills down Hannah's spine… he also kept disappearing after curfew… I don't how he got off without getting caught, but he definitely is hiding something big… and I have a feeling that it involves Harry.'_

'_Dear Diary… I intercepted Zacharias' letter for Harry. He was very daring to use Harry's owl Hedwig. Thankfully, I got to it first before Harry; it pained me to see Hedwig fluttering like he was warning to go to Harry. But this is between me and Zacharias, even though Harry's observation around Hogwarts was full proof, my stomachs squirms at the thought of how Zacharias is involved in all of this.'_

Both of the boys knew then, the next entry would bee the last one Susan had written. After a short pause, Susan's voice appeared again and read the last entry.

'_Dearest Diary…. My ever-faithful companion, I have written a lot in you and you have kept lots of secrets, facts and trivia of my life and I thank you for your service. However, I need you to do one more thing…_

_I feel that tonight would be the last night for me here in this ever amazing school, and just moments away from meeting Zacharias, I am giving it all tonight to help him, and if I fail and am somehow gone, I have enchanted you so you would be in the hands of my dearest friend, Harry James Potter…'_

'_And to Harry Potter, continue your dreams, and please help Zacharias,'_

After she read the last line, Zacharias felt a comfortable breeze pass him and looked up at nothing. Then he heard a soft whisper.

'_I still love you, Zacharias'_

The chains around untangled themselves like snakes slithering away. The blonde boy dropped to his knees and the book closed with a thud and dropped on the floor. Zacharias then cried, on his knees, covering his face with his hands.

Harry watched the person in front of him. A person, who was so different months ago, now regretting what he did. Harry dropped his emotionless act, gazed softly down at the boy. Later, cries of Aurors came.

* * *

Hermione watched the dramatic scene before her, from the threshold. All of the events months ago came down to this and she finally came to a realization and she knew why Harry helped the Smiths escaped.

Harry was carrying out a friend's wish, a hopeless and impossible one, but Harry turned it into a reality. He helped Zacharias come to his senses.

She finally knew that Harry was still Harry.

* * *

Aurors burst into Grimmauld Place and immediately reprimanded the Smiths. Kingsley led the group, after getting an order not from the Ministry, but from a mischievous old wizard. The black man was told to wait for an hour after the Headmaster let Ron and Hermione used the Portkey to go to Grimmauld Place.

Kingsley smiled amusedly thinking of another person. He knew since the Smiths escaped that Harry was responsible, after all he was the one who gave the Sleeping Gas to Harry, to be used as 'in-case-of-trouble type situation'. He was going to let this one slide.

He owed Harry a huge favour. Phillips was now out of work.

* * *

Outside number twelve, Aurors worked tirelessly, setting up magical camouflage all over the place. They cleverly placed police cars and an ambulance, to make it look like a police investigation scene. They even dressed up completely in muggle police uniforms. Even though it was late hours they took very serious precautions when it came to hiding the Wizarding World.

Ron and Hermione were near the ambulance. The truck was parked so its back was facing Grimmauld Place. Ron was treated by Tonks, who came in concern for Harry.

"Stay calm!" she sternly scolded the stubborn boy, who could not stop shivering. He was given a Calming Draught, but to little effect. Tonks, who dressed as a Medical Emergency Officer, tried futilely to stop Ron's squirming. Hermione tried to hold back her laughter at the look of Ron's face.

Apparently, Harry's spell was stronger than normally expected. The effects were tremendous, leaving Ron numb for a long time, even after countless spells from Hermione to revive the red head. The doctor too had the same condition as Ron, but the Auror decided to leave him like that.

Hermione wrapped the grey blanket around her. She smiled as she got her answers and was satisfied with it. Harry never change from the beginning, he was still the same. Still the one who wants to help.

* * *

After talking and confirming his situation, Harry gazed upwards at the dark skies, sprinkled with stars. He sighed, letting the relief set in. He had finally done it, his promise to Susan. Now, his path became clearer.

He knew what to do with his life.

He set his sights at the ambulance area. With a high heart, he walked up to them.

* * *

Tonks surveyed her work with a satisfied smile. "Now everything is good, your body should be in great condition now," said Tonks, smiling smugly.

Ron narrowed his eyes at her. "How in the bloody hell am I in good condition?" he asked, furiously. "When I can't move my left side of my body!"

True, he was stiff on his left side of his body. He could not move his left leg, left hand, or even blinking his left eye, which fortunately was closed. He even has to speak with half of his lips. Hermione could not contain her laughter, and it irritated Ron.

"Shuddup Ermione!" he growled funnily.

"Oh, Ron, you should look at yourself," she said, covering her giggles with her hands.

Ron used his leg and arm to show whatever signals he wanted to show. "This is not a laughing matter, and Tonks, you did an awful job as a heeler," he said bitterly, and a bit understandable.

Tonks was not miffed a bit, instead she admitted her mistakes. "I guess I really did an awful job, and I'm proud of it," she said, and the girls laughed together, making Ron flush.

Then Tonks stopped laughing when she saw someone from behind Hermione. Ron followed her line of gaze and was shocked to see the person coming up to them. Hermione stopped laughing as she noticed the odd looks on Ron and Tonks.

"What is it?" she asked, looking back and forth between the two people. Then she knew there was someone was behind her, so turned around slowly. Her face turned into a surprised look when she saw the familiar messy raven haired, that green eyes of his and the boyish face she knew very well. It was like resurrection.

"Harry,"

"Hey," he said back, not with malice, but calm and happy. Silence fell upon them, it was bit of awkward.

Tonks saw this as none of her business, gladly excused herself and see other matters that needed to be handled. "I'll leave you guys alone, I think Kingsley wants some help with the Muggle Cover-up Void," she said and left briskly. The three watched as the pink haired woman left them and turned back to each other. They looked everywhere but each other as the awkward silence looming over them, until Harry and Hermione broke it.

"Listen," they both said in unison. They were surprised.

"You go first," they did it again.

"No you!"

And they laughed, even Ron too, with half of his mouth.

Harry stopped laughing and spoke, "That was kind of funny."

"Yeah we haven't laughed this much since fifth year," said Hermione earnestly.

"Or that time, when the impostor Moody turned Draco into a ferret," said Ron, at which Harry and Hermione laughed.

"You better have someone check up you, Ron," said Harry.

"Yeah thought so, Tonks did an awful job," said Ron sourly.

* * *

"Harry,"

"Hmmm…"

He did not look at her but at the Aurors placing the rigid Gerrard into one of police cars. He could see the doctor's face contorted into a dangerous glare.

"I'm sorry," she said regretfully.

Harry turned to her and stared at her in puzzled expression. "For what?" he asked.

They were leaning against the side of the ambulance. Ron was being treated with a real Auror Healer, something he deeply appreciated.

"For thinking false things about you… what you did for Zacharias was… unselfish and caring, I always thought you wee just showing off being smart, guess Draco rubbing off on me," she giggled at that part but quickly went back to the conversation as she knew Harry disliked Draco. "Even though he murdered Susan you didn't hate him or avenge Susan," she added. "Why?"

Harry chuckled at the simple question. "No matter, I did what I had to do. And promises of good intentions should not be left unfulfilled," he said in a sort of teaching tone.

Hermione nodded. A nagging voice in her head told her another thing, but Harry's words made sense.

"There's no use in going on hating. It'll only distract you from reality and the truth. I decided to get rid of my hate back when I defeated Voldemort and the Death Eaters. I felt no reason to hate after that. Even if I got insulted and provoked from time to time, there seemed to use to hate. Zacharias had his reasons."

Then Harry grew silent as though contemplating his next choice of words while Hermione waited in anticipation.

"I've learned a lot from living in both the wizard and muggle worlds." he continued, looking at the skies above him.

Hermione gazed expectantly at him. "What did you learn?"

He dropped his view of the stars and turned his head to Hermione. He gave her a wink and a grin, one that Hermione had never seen before. "There's a lot of people in trouble, more than us, and I intend to help them if I ever cross-path with them," he said.

She saw something odd about him, but when he spoke it was as though he was glowing brightly, like the night was not here. She suddenly found herself blushing and admired his enthusiasm.

* * *

Ron was fully healed and things get merrier. Or dreadful, in Ron's case. The Weasley's came led by a very distressful Mrs. Weasley. The plump woman immediately rushed to her youngest son and gave him one the fiercest hug she ever gave. This was the first time they saw each other since the dungeon incident.

Ron was out of breath as Mrs. Weasley wailed and cried, ignoring her son's uneasiness. Mr. Weasley looked on happily and proudly while his children, Fred, George, and Ginny watched in amusement at Ron's pain. Harry and Hermione too watched in amusement.

Then Hermione saw something and wrung Harry's arms. "Harry look," she said desperately and pointed her forefinger to the front door. Harry looked at her for a second and turned to the direction where she was pointing.

Kingsley and two of his men were escorting a calm lanky blonde boy, who did not mind getting apprehended and gave in to the authorities. Harry noticed he was hiding still guilt and regret. Harry felt remorse for him, but was happy when he saw Zacharias was clutching Susan's diary in his hands.

They were about to pass Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys when Zacharias spoke suddenly. "Stop please," he said.

Kingsley and the Aurors halted. Zacharias turned to Harry. Harry looked at the boy's expression that changed so much since arriving hours ago at Grimmauld Place. Harry then turned his head to Kingsley and they exchanged a knowing look. Kingsley gave Zacharias a few minutes to talk.

The two boys look expectantly at each other, no rift, no revenge, no bad thoughts, no nothing. "Harry Potter," Zacharias started and spoke the raven haired boy's name as though it was an honour. "I wish to thank you a lot. Susan would have been utterly proud of what you did for me. It will mean a lot to her that her wishes will not be meaningless," he said, smiling a genuine smile.

Harry smiled back. "You're welcome… Susan would be glad to know your love for her hasn't died or been forgotten," he said full heartedly.

"I won't forget her," Zacharias said determinedly, and his smile changed to a toothy grin. "She will always be in my heart," he added and reached out to offer Harry something.

Harry shook his head and pushed the diary back to Zacharias with one hand. "Keep it," he said trustfully. "You'll need it for comfort in Azkaban, now with the Dementors gone," he said.

Zacharias grasped back the book to his chest. He nodded gratefully. "Thank you," he whispered. Then Kingsley and his men led Zacharias to a portkey, where he was taken into custody. Harry watched a friend and a final farewell to Zacharias Smith.

* * *

"Well what now?" Ginny asked, looking back at the now reunited friends.

"Christmas is nearing and only three weeks away," said Hermione in her usual tome of voice, directive.

"How about Christmas at the Burrow?" Ron suggested happily, with a hopeful look.

Hermione shook her head in decline. "No again, Ron. We did it already your place last year, remember?" she said making Ron snorted in annoyance. Then she turned suggestive. "How about my place? My parents always wanted to have wizards and witches to join our home for Christmas," she said merrily.

Ron snorted. "Sorry Hermione, I can't stand doing muggle things, or not doing magic even for a day. It might work for dad, but not for me, forget it," he said in a rather quicker voice.

They both exchanged glares. Harry shook his head. 'Some things never change,' he thought.

"How about my place?" Harry stepped in to stop the argument. Hermione, Ron and Ginny turned to him. "I mean you haven't seen the new number twelve, right? Then how about we spend Christmas here? All Hogwarts invited," he said.

"Great," said Hermione, beaming at Harry.

"Fantastic," said Ron, though to him the Burrow was better.

"Lovely," Ginny said, she wanted to ask Harry if Draco could join but changed her mind.

"C'mon I'll give you a tour of the house," said Harry, as he welcomed his friends into number twelve, his home.

END

* * *

BETA version is here and the story is finish! and a sequel is ont the works. Hey even though i dont own the Hp world, its my story... read and review, read back and review again, ha ha... tq to my reviewers for reviewing and rachkmar for bEtaing... well that's about it but sure to check in my blogs, the address is in my profile... c ya in the sequel...


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